US envoy did not explicitly link aid with opening Biden probe: Ukraine official

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko said on Thursday that US ambassador Gordon Sondland did not explicitly link military aid to Kiev with opening an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Interfax Ukraine reported.

“Ambassador Sondland did not tell us, and certainly did not tell me, about a connection between the assistance and the investigations. You should ask him,” Prystaiko said about Sondland, the US ambassador to the European Union.

The statement follows the first televised hearing of the impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump on Wednesday, where witness William Taylor, acting ambassador to Ukraine, testified that a member of his staff overheard a July 26 phone call between Trump and Sondland, in which the president asked about the investigations and Sondland told him that the Ukrainians were ready to proceed.