US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will visit Ukraine ahead of President Donald Trump’s trial in the Senate over allegations he sought to push Kiev to investigate a political rival, according to the State Department on Monday.
Pompeo will travel to Kiev on January 3 and will meet Zelensky as well as other top Ukrainian officials, State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said in a statement.
On December 18, President Trump was impeached for abuse of power in a historic vote in the House of Representatives and set up a Senate trial on removing him from office after three turbulent years.
While impeachment is expected to pass in the Democratic-led House, the Senate is held by a Republican majority and would likely acquit the US president as his 2020 reelection campaign gathers pace.
The trip will make Pompeo the most senior US official to visit Kiev since a scandal erupted earlier this year over a controversial phone call in which Trump allegedly tried to pressure his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky to find dirt on Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden.
Trump is accused of withholding $400 million in assistance to Ukraine and a White House meeting with Zelensky to push Kiev to investigate Biden and his son Hunter, who served on the board of directors of a Ukrainian gas company.
The visit will also come after Ukraine and pro-Russian separatists battling the government’s forces exchanged 200 prisoners, a further sign of the fragile detente that has begun since Zelensky was elected in April.
Pompeo’s trip aims to “reaffirm US support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Ortagus further added.
Pompeo will also visit Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Cyprus, she noted.
In September, Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine had resigned following the release of a whistleblower complaint that alleged the President’s inappropriate interactions with his Ukrainian counterpart.
Earlier, President Trump denied any wrongdoing and dismissed the impeachment proceedings as a “hoax” and “another witch-hunt”.