Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said on Jan. 16 it will investigate whether former ambassador of the United States, Marie Yovanovitch, was under illegal surveillance during her term in Kyiv.
The allegation about surveillance first appeared in WhatsApp chat from last March—made public two days ago—between an associate of Rudy Giuliani, the personal lawyer of U.S. President Donald J. Trump, and Robert F. Hyde, a former Republican congressional candidate.
The ministry said in a statement it will investigate whether Ukrainian and international laws were violated, or the information was “bravado and fake in an informal conversation of two U.S. citizens.”
Yovanovitch left the embassy in Kyiv in May as a result of the smear campaign by Giuliani and former Ukrainian prosecutors.
Giuliani led the efforts to collect dirt on Trump’s political rivals. Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress and will stand the trial in the Senate. He has been accused of extorting Ukraine to investigate unsubstantiated allegations into the Democratic candidate in the 2020 presidential election, former U.S. vice president Joe Biden, and the collusion of Ukrainian officials with Trump’s 2016 rival, Hillary Clinton.
“Ukraine’s position is not to interfere in the internal affairs of the United States,” the statement from Ukraine’s Interior Ministry read.
“However, the published messages contain facts of possible violations of Ukrainian legislation and of the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations, which protects the rights of diplomats on the territory of another state.”
The authorities opened a criminal investigation into violation of secrecy of correspondence, illegal collection of confidential information, and breach of privacy.
The ministry asked the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation to provide information into persons who might be involved in the case. Moreover, minister Arsen Avakov invited the FBI to join the investigation.
Two men who helped Giuliani in his Ukraine covert campaign, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, were arrested in October and are facing trial for campaign finance violations. Parnas has agreed to cooperate in the impeachment probe and provided text messages, letters, and other documents to the House.
In a text exchange over Whatsapp messenger in March 2019, Parnas and Hyde discussed Yovanovitch’s location, movements, and level of security. Some messages indicated she might have had her mobile phone and computer monitored too. Hyde said they had “a person inside” the embassy.
Parnas in a Jan. 15 interview with MSNBC claimed he didn’t take Hyde’s words seriously.
“He was either drunk or was trying to make him bigger than he was,” he said adding that Hyde “drank all the time.”
Parnas said he became disturbed by Hyde’s messages about surveilling the ambassador and cut off the communication with him.
Read more: New documents reveal Giuliani associates surveilled US ambassador in Kyiv
Interior minister Avakov knew Parnas personally and was aware of the campaign against Yovanovitch.
In her testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives on Nov. 15, Yovanovitch said that it was Avakov who had warned her about Giuliani’s efforts for her removal aided by then-Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko. They claimed Yovanovitch was biased against Trump.
“He said that Lutsenko was working with Mayor Giuliani through these two individuals, Parnas and Furman,” Yovanovitch said under oath. “That they basically wanted to remove me from post. And that they were — they were working on that.”
According to the text messages, Avakov and Parnas met in person in April and stayed in touch until the end of May, regularly speaking on the phone. It also appears that Avakov provided Parnas with security during his stay in Kyiv in May.
Parnas hoped Avakov could help in connecting with Zelensky’s close circle and arrange a meeting for Giuliani with President-elect Volodymyr Zelensky in May (Giuliani canceled his trip to Kyiv.)
