Here are some of the people that play a role in U.S. President Donald Trump’s Ukraine scandal, and where they fit in the story.
Donald Trump
U.S. president who pressured the Ukrainian President to investigate Joe Biden’s son.
During a phone call with Zelensky on July 25, Trump asked his Ukrainian counterpart to look into the Bidens’ activities in Ukraine as “a favor.” Days earlier, he froze $391.5 million in military aid to Ukraine, which many view as political extortion. Trump denied he was putting pressure on Zelensky.
Volodymyr Zelensky
President of Ukraine who was pressured by Trump to investigate the Biden family.
During the July 25 phone call with Trump, Zelensky was pressured to have his prosecutor general look into the Bidens’ activities in Ukraine.
Zelensky didn’t entirely accept or reject the request to begin an investigation, but said that the new prosecutor general will do what he wants and look into it. He denied he felt pressured during the call.
Rudy Giuliani
Donald Trump’s lawyer who accused Ukraine of meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and pressured Ukraine to investigate the son of Trump’s political opponent before the 2020 presidential race.
A former New York City mayor, Giuliani is the center piece to the story. He alleges that Joe Biden pressured Ukraine to fire its prosecutor general Viktor Shokin in order to hamper an investigation into Burisma Holdings, the oil and gas company where Biden’s son Hunter sat on the board of directors. He also claims that Ukrainian officials conspired to frame Trump’s then-campaign chief, Paul Manafort, for corruption to help Hillary Clinton during the 2016 election.
Starting earlier this year, Giuliani began to raise the matter in media interviews.
In late September, he admitted pressuring Ukraine to investigate the Ukrainian company that employed Hunter Biden. Joe Biden is currently the most likely Democratic nominee for the 2020 election.
Joe Biden 
Former U.S. vice president and potential Democratic Party nominee in the 2020 election, accused by Giuliani of pressuring Ukraine to fire its prosecutor general in 2016 to help his son Hunter.
Biden is the Democratic Party’s frontrunner for the 2020 elections. Should he receive the nomination, he will face off with and attempt to unseat Trump.
In 2016, Biden pressured Ukraine to fire Shokin, threatening to withhold over $1 billion in U.S. loan guarantees if the official wasn’t removed.
Giuliani alleged that the pressure was due to Shokin investigating Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian company where Biden’s son Hunter served on the board of directors.
However, there is no indication that Shokin was investigating Hunter Biden or, for that matter, Burisma – in fact, no high-profile cases moved forward under Shokin. Foreign donors, civil society and 120 Ukrainian lawmakers petitioned for Shokin’s removal due to his ineffectiveness.
Yuriy Lutsenko
Ukraine’s former prosecutor general (2016-2019) who helped spread rumors of Ukraine meddling in U.S. elections and the Biden conspiracy.
Lutsenko played a central role in boosting the Ukraine conspiracy.
In March, Lutsenko gave an interview to The Hill, a news website, where he made several scandalous claims. He said that Joe Biden pressured the Ukrainian government to fire Lutsenko’s predecessor Shokin to protect Burisma Holdings. Lutsenko was the first official to voice this claim, helping it come to prominence.
Lutsenko also alleged that U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch gave him a list of Ukrainians who should be exempt from prosecution, which the State Department denied.
He also supported the conspiracy theory that Ukraine meddled in the U.S. election, accusing lawmaker Sergii Leshchenko of receiving money for revealing the information on Manafort.
Hunter Biden 
Joe Biden’s son who served on the board of directors of Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian gas extraction company.
Burisma Holdings is owned by Mykola Zlochevsky, a controversial former ecology minister. The company had several high-profile board members, including former Polish President Alexander Kwasniewski, investment banker Alan Apter, and the former head of the CIA’s counterterrorism center, Joseph Cofer Black.
Hunter Biden, a lawyer by trade, served on Burisma’s board of directors from 2014 to 2019.
Burisma Holdings and its owner Zlochevsky have been investigated for money laundering and tax evasion, but none of the board members faced investigations.
Viktor Shokin
Ukraine’s former prosecutor general (2015-2016), who Giuliani alleges was fired because he investigated Joe Biden’s son Hunter.
Giuliani alleged that Biden pressured Ukraine to fire its prosecutor general because he was investigating Burisma Holding, where his son Hunter was serving on the board of directors. In fact, Shokin didn’t actively investigate Burisma, and the case against it stalled during his tenure. Hunter Biden wasn’t investigated at all.
Ukrainian lawmakers and civic watchdogs called for Shokin’s dismissal. He was seen as a highly ineffective prosecutor who stalled high-profile cases. Biden demanded his firing too and succeeded. Shokin was dismissed in April 2016 and replaced with Lutsenko.
Marie Yovanovitch 
Former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, accused by Lutsenko of ordering him to not prosecute certain people.
Yovanovitch was dragged into this scandal by Lutsenko, who alleged that she gave him an “untouchables list” that included Leshchenko. A career diplomat, Yovanovitch was appointed under the previous U.S. administration and Trump accused her of working for the Democratic Party.
Lutsenko never backed up his claims, while the State Department accused Lutsenko of lying.
Yovanovitch was recalled two months ahead of the end of her term.
Sergii Leshchenko
Former Ukrainian lawmaker (2014-2019), accused by Giuliani of interfering in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Giuliani called Leshchenko “the enemy of the United States” and “an already convicted person who has been found to be involved in assisting the Democrats during the 2016 election.”
In 2016, before the U.S. election, Leshchenko made public the secret ledger of ousted President Viktor Yanukovych’s party, which showed their off-the-books payments and later led to the conviction of Trump’s campaign chief Manafort.
A Kyiv court found Leshchenko and another official guilty of disclosing secret information that was part of a criminal investigation, which led to interference in U.S. electoral processes.
However, that ruling was met with skepticism due to the poor reputation of the court in question. Leshchenko appealed the ruling and won.
Paul Manafort 
Ex-head of Trump’s 2016 election campaign; convicted for tax evasion he committed during his work for Ukraine’s corrupt former president, Viktor Yanukovych.
Giuliani accused Ukrainian officials of targeting Manafort to help Trump’s opponent Hillary Clinton in the 2016 elections.
In May 2016, Leshchenko published information from Yanukovych’s party’s “black ledger.” Among those mentioned was Manafort, who received over $12 million off the books between 2007 and 2012. These revelations would lead to Manafort’s resignation from leading Trump’s presidential campaign in August 2016. Later, he would be sentenced to 7.5 years in prison for tax and bank fraud, amongst other charges.
Giuliani has connected the disclosure of the Manafort payments and Biden’s efforts to fire Shokin into one conspiracy theory of Ukraine helping the U.S. Democratic Party.
Mykola Zlochevsky
Ukraine’s former ecology minister (2010-2012) and owner of Burisma Holdings, who invited Hunter Biden to Ukraine.
Zlochevsky is a highly controversial figure, a former ecology minister under Yanukovych whose company became the largest privately owned oil and gas extraction company in Ukraine after he left office.
To clear his name after the change of government in 2014, Zlochevsky invited high-profile foreign public figures, including Hunter Biden, to serve on his company’s board of directors. In 2015, he was the subject of an investigation which eventually led nowhere and was closed by Lutsenko in 2016.
