![]() GROSS: What are your fears about the war spreading to Eastern European countries like Poland, you know, of Putin trying to invade Poland or other border countries? It is - I used to say that Putin is a bully. And he's doing his best to eradicate the Ukrainian people, the Ukrainian country, Ukrainian culture. You've heard the things that Putin has said, that Ukraine is not a country, the Ukrainian people are not a separate people from the Russians. But I think that they view this, I think rightly so, as a campaign of extermination, exterminating Ukraine, exterminating the Ukrainian people. GROSS: Is it hard for you to imagine some of your friends and colleagues who are taking up arms being in that position as fighters? This is an all-of-country effort where everybody is putting their shoulder to the wheel to stop this invasion. This is, you know, we talk about an all-of-government effort here in the United States. I mean, there's the military, the - but there's also the territorial defense forces. Quite a number of the people that I knew and worked with previously have remained either in Kyiv or in other cities and towns in Ukraine because there is an active resistance. GROSS: Do you have friends who are staying in Kyiv to take up arms against the Russians? assistance, international assistance to beat back the Russians. But most of all, what I'm hearing is their resolve, that they are going to fight this and that they are going to win. MARIE YOVANOVITCH: Well, I'm hearing all sorts of things, you know, their anger at Russia, their concerns for their children and the future. What are you hearing from friends and colleagues in Ukraine? ![]() She's written a new memoir called "Lessons From The Edge."Īmbassador Yovanovitch, welcome to FRESH AIR. She's now a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a non-resident fellow at Georgetown University. She was terminated as ambassador the following month. She was recalled to Washington in April 2019, just a few days after Zelenskyy's election. Yovanovitch was appointed ambassador to Ukraine by President Obama in May 2016, a couple of years after Russia invaded Crimea. In that same call, Trump also described Ambassador Yovanovitch as bad news and said she was going to go through some things. Trump responded by requesting a favor to dig up dirt in Ukraine on Joe Biden and his son, Hunter. In Trump's infamous call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy - or, as Trump described it, his perfect phone call - Zelenskyy asked Trump for weapons to help fight the Russians who had invaded Crimea and the region in Ukraine known as the Donbas. She was fired soon after she declined to pledge her loyalty to Trump. ambassador to Ukraine who Trump fired after a smear campaign that Rudy Giuliani played a major role in. My guest, Marie Yovanovitch, was one of the star witnesses of Trump's first impeachment, the one that revolved around his dealings with Ukraine.
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