A former White House analyst on Russia has denounced as “fictional” the contention from some Republicans that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 US election.
Fiona Hill, who is giving evidence to impeachment investigators on Thursday, was an aide to national security adviser John Bolton but she stressed she is “nonpartisan” and has worked under Republican and Democratic presidents.
In prepared opening remarks to the House Intelligence Committee, she also urged politicians not to “promote politically-driven falsehoods that so clearly advance Russian interests”.
She added: “I have no interest in advancing the outcome of your inquiry in any particular direction, except toward the truth.”
She said the conclusion by US intelligence agencies that Russia meddled in the election “is beyond dispute”.
But she said the assertion by some Republicans that Ukraine interfered in the election “is a fictional narrative that has been perpetrated and propagated by the Russian security services themselves”.
She added: “I refuse to be part of an effort to legitimise an alternative narrative that the Ukrainian government is a US adversary, and that Ukraine – not Russia – attacked us in 2016.”
