sustained by russian influence in the country. those events followed by russian occupation of crimea and invasion of the donbass region and a war that has cost almost 14,000os lives. despite the russian aggression over the past five years, ukrainians have rebuilt a shatteredrs economy, adhered to peace process, and moved economically and socially closer to the west toward our way of life. earlier this year large majorities of ukrainians again chose a fresh start by voting for a political newcomer as president. replacing en80% of their parliament and endorsing a platform consistent with our democratic values our reform priorities and our strategic interests. this year s revolution at the ballot box underscores that despite its imperfections ukraine is a genuine and vibrant
there s a great deal of hostility and malign intent towards ukraine and suits the russian government very much if we re also looking at ukraine a perpetrator of malign acts against us. i want to ask you a quick couple questions, often as the case for people, you know, i was at your deposition, read your opening testimony, but as you learn a more facts you start to see things in different light, even though your opening statement is very much consistent with your opening statement during theur depositi, and i was struck in particular, by something you said on page 10 of your opening statement, while ween advised our ukrainian counterparts to voice a commitment to following the rule of law and generally investigating credible corruption allegations, this was a demand that president zelensky personally commit on a cable news channel to a specific investigation of president t trump s political rival. this gets to a point i made at
in interfering in our election in 2016, and, of course, this was given a boost when president trump in helsinki in the presence of putin questioned his own intelligence agencies, why are the russians pushing that narrative that it was ukraine? how does that serve russian interests? the russian s interests frankly to delegitimize our entire presidency. one issue i want to raise and i think that this would resonate with our colleagues on the committee from the republican party, is that the goal of the russians was really to put whoever became thell president,y trying to tip their hands on one side of the scale, under a cloud. so if secretary former first lady former senator clinton had been elected as president, as, indeed, many expected in the run up to the election in 2016, she, too, would have had major questions about her legitimacy. and i think that, you know, what we re seeing here as a result of our all of these narratives
2017 when general mcmaster was the national security adviser. i and they thought that i could help them with president trump s stated goal of improving relations with russia still implementing policies designed to deter russian conduct that threatens the united states. including the unprecedented and successful russia operation to interfere in the election. this relates to the second thing i want to communicate. based on questions and statements i have heard, some of you on this committee appear to believe that russia and its security services did not conduct ari campaign against ou country. and that perhaps somehow for some reason ukraine did. this is a fictional narrative being perpetrated by the russian security services themselves. the unfortunate truth is that russia was the foreign power that systemically attacked our democratic institutions in 2016. this is the public conclusion of our intelligence agencies
this never set me back in america. the best part of three decades i have built a career as a nonpartisan, nonpolitical national security professional focusing on europe and eurasia and the former soviet union. i have served our country under three presidents and under president trump as well as in my former position under in my former position as national intelligence officer for russia and eurasia under george w. bush and barack a obama. i was the intelligence committee senior expert on russia and former soviet republic including ukraine. because of my background and experience that as i was asked to join the national security councilti in 2017. at the nsc russia was part of my portfolio but i was responsible for coordinating u.s. policy for all of western europe, all of eastern europe including ukraine, and turkey, along with nato and the european union. i was hired initially by general michael flynn, katie mcfarland and general keith kellogg. but then i started working april