While all eyes have been on the impeachment trial of Donald Trump in Washington, Ukraine is counting the cost of a scandal that has painted it in the minds of many Americans as an irredeemably corrupt country unworthy of support.
Ukrainians fear that while they are trying to regain control of the east of the country from Russian-backed separatists, the all-important relationship with the United States has been undermined by digging for political dirt
A lasting legacy of the impeachment may be the much-repeated mantra in Washington that ‘Ukraine is the most corrupt country in Europe’.
Trump was accused of abuse of power by withholding $390 million in military aid to Ukraine in order to force President Volodymyr Zelensky to announce a corruption investigation into one of his Democratic challengers in the November presidential election, the former vice-president Joe Biden.
