Ukraine says it expects same amount of US aid in 2020 ‘if not larger’

A top official in Ukraine’s government on Monday said that the country expects the same amount of military aid, if not more, from the U.S. in 2020 after aid to the nation has become a central focal point of the House’s impeachment inquiry into President Trump.

Reuters reported that Ukraine’s defense minister Andriy Zahorodniuk cited a “general common opinion” in Washington that aid to Ukraine should be increased in response to President Volodymyr Zelensky’s anti-corruption efforts.

{mosads}“There is a general common opinion in both the government and Congress that it should be ramped up,” said Zahorodniuk.

“We do feel support and it’s there. It’s 100 percent,” he added when asked by Reuters whether Ukraine can count on a U.S. alliance in the future

Ukraine has relied largely on U.S. military aid following the annexation of Crimea, formerly a Ukrainian territory, by Russia in 2014. The country’s military has skirmished with Russian-allied militant groups in the years since.

Aid to the country was frozen in July by the Trump administration amid Trump and his allies’ efforts to push Zelensky to announce the opening of a criminal investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden, a front-runner for the 2020 Democratic nomination.

That act has become central to an impeachment investigation launched by House Democrats in September, who argue that the president improperly solicited foreign assistance in a U.S. election and improperly tied foreign assistance to a campaign issue.

Trump and Republicans have argued for weeks that no understanding existed between the U.S. and Ukraine that the aid was frozen on condition of an investigation into Biden being launched.