One of Ms. Cooper’s staff members reported that sometime during the week of August 6, a Ukrainian Embassy officer stated that “a Ukrainian official might raise concerns about security assistance in an upcoming meeting,” but that the issue was “not, in fact, raised.”452 Ms. Cooper’s staff further reported that Ukrainian officials were aware of the hold on security assistance in August.453
Lt. Col. Vindman testified that, by mid-August, he too was getting questions from Ukrainians about the status of the hold on security assistance:
- So to the best of my knowledge, the Ukrainians, first of all, are in general pretty sophisticated, they have their network of, you know, Ukrainian interest groups and so forth. They have bipartisan support in Congress. And certainly there are—it was no secret, at least within government and official channels, that security assistance was on hold. And to the best of my recollection, I believe there were some of these light inquires in the mid-August timeframe.454
While numerous individuals, including Ukrainians, were aware of the hold, it did not become publicly known until a Politico report on August 28, 2019.455
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