Giuliani ordered him to tell Zelensky that Vice President Pence would not travel to Ukraine for Zelensky's inauguration on May 12 unless he announced the Biden investigation. When Zelensky refused, Pence cancelled his trip the next day. Parnas explained that a show of support by Trump and the United States was just as important to Zelensky as the military aid the Congress had appropriated, which was why the cancellation of Pence's visit was such a blow.

When the transcript of the July call between Trump and Zelensky was released, all the coverage was on Trump's quid pro quo, the "favor" he asked for regarding a Biden investigation immediately after Zelensky's mention of military aid, and Trump's references to Giuliani and Barr.

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But if you go back and read Zelensky's portionsince then had been fighting a war on its eastern border against separatists backed by Putin's military. To date, that war has resulted in nearly twice as many Ukrainian casualties than the U.S. has lost in Iraq and Afghanistan combined over the last 18 years.

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Putin's ambition for a "greater Russia," if not a new Soviet Union-style Russian empire, began with Ukraine, and he wants it badly enough to fight a war for it. If Ukraine has reportedly lost as many as 14,000 in its war against Russian separatists, Russia must have lost just as many. Reports this week about Putin's maneuvers toward keeping himself in power indefinitely have to make Zelensky's blood run cold. Russia is far bigger, richer and more powerful than Ukraine, and it's right on