Ukrainian officials announced an investigation into possible surveillance of former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch before she was ousted from her post by the Trump administration.
“Ukraine’s position is not to interfere in the domestic affairs of the United States of America. However, the published references cited by the Washington Post contain a possible violation of the law of Ukraine and the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, which protects the rights of a diplomat on the territory of the foreign country,” the Ministry of Internal Affairs said in a statement Thursday.
“Ukraine cannot ignore such illegal activities on the territory of its own state,” the statement continued.
The announcement followed the disclosure of documents that included exchanges between Lev Parnas, an associate of Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, and others about the need to remove Yovanovitch from her post.
The documents were provided to the House Intelligence Committee by Parnas, who has been charged with campaign finance violations.
Parnas and Trump donor and Republican congressional candidate Robert Hyde discussed Yovanovitch’s whereabouts in Ukraine in text messages from March 2019. Hyde implied in the messages that he or his allies were monitoring her.
[Read more: Lev Parnas says ‘Trump knew’ about his Ukraine dealings]
“She’s talked to three people. Her phone is off. Computer is off. She’s next to the embassy. Not in the embassy. Private security. Been there since Thursday,” Hyde said in one of his messages to Parnas.
“They know she’s a political puppet. They will let me know when she’s on the move,” he said in another message.
Parnas said Wednesday in an interview with Rachel Maddow on MSNBC that he didn’t take Hyde’s surveillance comments seriously.
“Our goal is to investigate whether there actually was a violation of Ukrainian and International law, which could be the subject for proper reaction,” Ukraine’s Ministry of Internal Affairs said. “Or whether it is just a bravado and a fake information in the informal conversation between two US citizens.”
