MOSCOW — The police in Ukraine have opened a criminal investigation into whether allies of President Trump had the United States ambassador to the country under surveillance while she was stationed in Kyiv, the Ukrainian government said on Thursday. The move was a remarkable departure from past practice for the government, which has studiously tried to avoid making moves that could make a political splash in Washington. Caught in the middle of the conflict between Democrats and Republicans over whether Mr. Trump’s pressure campaign on Ukraine justifies his removal from office, President Volodymyr Zelensky and his government have worked hard to appear neutral. But developments have prompted a change of course. On Tuesday, just before Mr. Trump’s impeachment trial in the Senate was scheduled to begin, Democrats in the House of Representatives o published text messages to and from Lev Parnas — an associate of Rudolph W. Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer — pointing to surveillance of the ambassador, Marie L. Yovanovitch.

Source: International New York Times January 16, 2020 13:35 UTC