Zelenskiy playing both sides here. No blackmail but willing to help Trump investigate Biden. Wow.
Ukraine’s president insisted Thursday that he faced “no blackmail” from President Donald Trump in their phone call that led to an impeachment inquiry, distancing himself from the U.S. political drama and trying to claw back his own credibility.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy said for the first time that his country will “happily” investigate the conspiracy theory pushed by Trump that it was Ukrainians, not Russians, who interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. And he encouraged U.S. and Ukrainian prosecutors to discuss investigating a gas company linked to the son of Trump’s Democratic rival Joe Biden, although no one has produced evidence of criminal wrongdoing by the former U.S. vice president or his son.
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The July call embarrassed Zelenskiy because it showed him as eager to please Trump and critical of European partners whose support he needs to strengthen Ukraine’s economy and to end the conflict with Russia.
Zelenskiy said it was “wrong” of the White House to publish a rough transcript of the call and he will not publish the Ukrainian transcript. He said he “didn’t even check” whether the Ukrainian transcript is the same, but “I think they match.”
Trump tweeted Thursday that Zelenskiy’s comment that there was no blackmail during the July call “should immediately end the talk of impeachment!”
Zelenskiy appears to be playing to both U.S. political camps to ensure Ukraine has continued support no matter who wins the presidential election next year. On Thursday, he repeatedly stressed he had no interest in interfering in the U.S. presidential election.
“I don’t want to be pulled into this because I understand that my words could impact the elections of the American people,” he said.
[…]
A TV and film comedian, Zelenskiy overwhelmingly won the presidency in April on promises to fight corruption and end the five-year conflict with Moscow-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. He’s treading carefully to ensure continued support from the U.S. while trying to make peace with powerful neighbor Russia.
Most of the questions at Thursday’s unusual media event related to the Russia conflict or Ukraine’s economic troubles.
Zelenskiy also joked about Trump’s Twitter missives, saying he doesn’t expect a change in U.S.-Ukrainian relations in the future, “but if there is, we’ll learn about it on Twitter.”
