The Ukrainian President's Office believes the recently leaked audio recording of a purported phone call of July 2019 between the former lawyer of U.S. ex-President Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani, American diplomat Kurt Volker, and Andriy Yermak, the-then aide to President Volodymyr Zelensky, clearly shows that this was an attempt to exert destructive pressure on Ukraine.
That's according to Mykhailo Podolyak, the adviser to the head of the President's Office, an UNIAN correspondent learned.
"As expected, there is more and more evidence emerging of how exactly in 2019 Giuliani tried to take advantage of conspiracy stories that some Ukrainian figures from the team that had been in power in 2014-2019 fed him," he said.
"Ultimate lies, permissive fantasies, and traditional trumped-up criminal cases. This is what members of a well-known political team, including a talkative Yuriy Lutsenko [former prosecutor general], had been selling," added the official.
Read alsoBloomberg: Giuliani investigators seized Ukrainian emails, lawyer saysAt the time of the call, Yermak was an aide to the president of Ukraine on foreign policy issues.
"The recording and its assessment by American journalists clearly show it was an attempt to exert destructive pressure on Ukraine based on fake news and false beliefs about the alleged participation of Ukrainians and Americans in Ukraine in some kind of activity targeting the United States," he added Podolyak.
In his opinion, the "Giuliani investigation" as an "extremely dangerous global fake" is still of great concern to American public opinion.
"I must admit that Andriy Borysovich [Yermak] acted with absolute dignity, perfectly understanding the risks the effort of our certain politicians and the situation as a whole carries for the country," the adviser said.
According to him, Yermak's main objective in that call was to reroute Giuliani to the plane of traditional constructive diplomacy: "To bring him back from the conspiracy world. But even Volker's remarks that Giuliani uses Ukrainian sources that are clearly untrustworthy, could not stop Giuliani from pursuing intentions," he said.
Read alsoGiuliani's "quid pro quo" attempt threatened Ukraine's national security, ex-Zelensky adviser saysNevertheless, according to the adviser, Yermak managed to maintain the line of conversation in such a way that Ukraine did not cross the border between ordinary diplomacy and shadow politics, into which they were Ukraine officials were being dragged.
"The further course of events in 2019 and 2020 proves that Volodymyr Zelensky's team has always adhered to the fundamental principle of non-interference in internal political processes in other countries, very clearly working to satisfy Ukraine's need for transparent and partner relations with the United States. This is an axiom that manifests itself quite extensively in this record," summed up Podolyak.
Earlier, CNN said it received an audio recording of a phone call made in July 2019 between what's believed to be Rudi Giuliani, Kurt Volker, and Andriy Yermak.
It is noted that the call received by CNN testifies to how Giuliani pressed and persuaded representatives of the Ukrainian authorities in 2019 to investigate unfounded conspiracies against the then U.S. presidential candidate Joe Biden.
