Honestly, I never imagined such a whole scale invasion. When I was ambassador in Ukraine, I thought that keeping a low level war going in the east destabilizing Ukraine in that way with cyberattacks, assassinations, disinformation, economic warfare. I thought that was sufficient for Russia to realize its aims of trying to destabilize Ukraine, and for Ukraine`s desires to join NATO and the EU.
Yovanovitch reflects on her expectations regarding Russia's actions in Ukraine during her tenure as ambassador.
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Ukraine is the front line of freedom right now. This is a struggle between freedom and tyranny.
American leadership and, frankly, American values, democratic values, indeed democratic values, when we choose to support Ukraine in this really important war of, frankly, liberty versus tyranny.
I was the target of a 'smear campaign' by the President and his lawyer Rudy Giuliani. I called Giuliani's work a 'campaign of misinformation.'
I think that he was hoping that this would be -- he believed, no doubt, that this would be an easy, victorious campaign, and it would boost his popularity ratings as he’s starting to go into the 2024 presidential elections.