Ukraine Announces Investigation into Alleged Surveillance of Amb. Marie Yovanovitch

The Ukrainian government has announced it will investigate allegations that former U.S. Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch was under surveillance. The news follows the release of a tranche of documents relating to the effort to get dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden.

CNN reported the breaking news on Thursday morning following the revelation of explosive text messages that strongly suggested Yovanovitch was being followed and that her life could have been under threat. She was a crucial witness in the House impeachment hearings against President Donald Trump.

The network’s Fred Pleitgen read from the Ukrainian government’s statement.

“Ukraine’s position is not to interfere in the domestic affairs of the United States of America,” Pleitgen said.

“However, the published references cited by the media 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 a foreign country.”

“Clearly the Ukrainians see themselves as having a responsibility for the safety of Ambassador Yovanovich, and they said after the announcement of these files and the national police of Ukraine basing on the fact of the publication of the files has initiated criminal proceedings of the criminal code of Ukraine,” Pleitgen went on, analyzing the statement.

“The Ukrainians going on to say they’re now going to investigate all this and see whether those text messages that have been made public were just bravado or whether there was a private, illegal surveillance campaign going on, on the territory of Ukraine.”

This will not be welcome news for many in President Trump’s orbit, who were hoping that Ukraine would initiate an investigation of the Bidens.

Watch the CNN coverage above, via CNN.