KYIV -- A former Ukrainian government adviser says Rudy Giuliani, U.S. President Donald Trump's personal lawyer who is at the center of the president's impeachment inquiry, has left Ukraine.
Andriy Telizhenko, a conservative political consultant and former adviser to Ukraine's prosecutor-general as well as the first deputy prime minister, said in a tweet on December 6 that he "hopes to see you [Giuliani] soon back in Kyiv."
Telizhenko gave no further details on why Giuliani was in Kyiv, posting photos from Boryspil Airport that appear to show Guiliani getting ready to board a plane.
Ukrainian lawmaker Andriy Derkach said on December 5 that he had been holding meetings with Giuliani to discuss the creation of an interparliamentary group to fight corruption and the alleged misuse of U.S. funds by Kyiv.
Derkach, an independent deputy, didn’t specify the date the two met but the December 5 statement followed a report by The New York Times that said Giuliani traveled to Budapest and Kyiv this week to meet current and former Ukrainian officials for a documentary series.
Derkach, who was formerly a member of a pro-Russian party in parliament, went to the Dzerzhinsky Higher School of the KGB in Moscow. He is the son of a KGB officer who later served as head of Ukrainian intelligence.
U.S. officials testified last month at a congressional impeachment panel that they became increasingly alarmed by the role Giuliani played in Ukraine for Trump.
Witnesses at the panel said Giuliani made it clear that a White House visit by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was contingent on the newly elected leader publicly announcing investigations into former Vice President Joe Biden, a Democrat who is seeking to challenge Trump in next year's presidential election, and his son Hunter, who sat on the board of Ukrainian natural-gas company Burisma.
Giuliani did not testify at the panel.
The New York Times said Giuliani's trip was tied to making a documentary aimed at refuting testimony given at the impeachment hearings.
