Giuliani Sought Help for Client in Meeting With Ukrainian Official
KYIV, Ukraine When Rudolph W. Giuliani met with a top aide to Ukraines president last summer, he discussed the prospect of a coveted White House meeting for the president while seeking Ukraines commitment to certain investigations that could benefit President Trump politically.
Mr. Giuliani also threw in a request of his own: help the mayor of Kyiv keep his job.
The mayor, Vitaliy Klitschko, a professional boxer turned politician and longtime friend and former client of Mr. Giulianis, was on the verge of being fired from his duties overseeing Kyivs $2 billion budget.
Firing Mr. Klitschko would have fit with President Volodymyr Zelenskys campaign promise to fight Ukraines entrenched interests and allowed him to replace a political adversary with a loyalist in one of the countrys most important posts.
But despite the fact that Mr. Zelenskys cabinet approved Mr. Klitschkos removal, he remains there today, leaving his adversaries in the murky and lucrative world of Ukrainian municipal politics to wonder whether Mr. Trumps personal attorney may have tipped the scales in his favor.
The coincidence in timing between Klitschkos meeting with Giuliani and the developments in the governance of Kyiv was striking, said Oleksandr Tkachenko, a member of the Ukrainian Parliament whom Mr. Zelensky had been expected to nominate as Mr. Klitschkos replacement.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/31/world/europe/giuliani-ukraine-klitschko-trump.html