KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian police said Thursday they have opened an investigation into the possibility that the U.S. ambassador came under illegal surveillance by an unknown party before she was recalled from her post in May. The announcement came two days after Democratic lawmakers in the United States released a trove of documents that showed Lev Parnas, an associate of President Donald Trump's personal lawyer, communicating about the removal of Marie Yovanovitch as the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. The Ukrainian Interior Ministry said in a statement that Ukrainian police “are not interfering in the internal political affairs of the United States” by conducting the probe. "The published messages contain facts of possible violations of Ukrainian law and of the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations, which protect the rights of diplomats on the territory of another state,” the ministry's statement continued.

Source: International New York Times January 16, 2020 13:29 UTC