The good news for President Donald Trump is that he’s finally managed to get Ukraine to launch an investigation. The bad news is it’s into an alleged surveillance campaign on Marie Yovanovitch, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, carried out by the president’s associates. Ukraine made the announcement Thursday, with its Ministry of Internal Affairs releasing a statement saying it “took note of the possible illegal surveillance on the territory of Ukraine by former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch.” She was recalled from her position in May following what she has described as a smear campaign against her from Trump and his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani. This week, House Democratic investigators released a trove of documents obtained from the phone of Lev Parnas, an associate of Giuliani’s, which implied he had access to people tracking Yovanovitch’s movements in Kyiv. Ukraine’s statement said international law “guarantees protection, safety, and untouchability for diplomats of any foreign state on the territory of Ukraine.”
