Keeping track of the key players in Ukraine as the House presses ahead with its impeachment probe of President Trump is a puzzling and complex task.
For starters, their names are in East Slavic and Russian and very hard to spell and pronounce.
In addition, the tangled political and financial alliances of the top participants make it difficult to sort out the former Soviet bloc’s pecking order.
To ease this confusion, Newsmax breaks down in layman’s terms exactly who is who in the Eastern European nation of 42 million residents which is bordered by Russia, Belarus, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Moldova and the Black Sea:
- Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskiy: The 41-year-old president of Ukraine is a former comedian, TV personality and actor. He played D’Artagnan in a 2005 movie of “The Three Musketeers” and Igor, a skirt-chasing Russian ex-pat loose in New York City in the 2009 flick “No Love in the City.” Zelenskiy was elected as Ukraine's president in April after running on an anti-corruption platform. He’s a reformist, strongly pro-Western and pro-Trump. He’s attempted to distance himself from the House investigation, but has strongly denied that he felt pressured by the Trump administration to launch a probe into the Bidens’ business dealings in Ukraine.
- Petro Oleksiyovych Poroshenko: A wealthy Ukraine businessman who served as the country’s president from 2014 to 2019. In December, 2015, he met with Vice President Joe Biden to discuss Ukrainian-American cooperation between Ukraine and the United States. In 2017, he met with President Trump, a powwow in which the BBC falsely claimed Poroshenko paid Trump's then-lawyer Michael Cohen $400,000 or more to organize. (The BBC later apologized and paid damages). Trump world figures believe Poroshenko, perhaps at the behest of Obama State Dept., dug up dirt on Trump associates like Paul Manafort.
- Mykola Vladislavovich Zlochevsky: Ukraine’s former Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources who co-founded Burisma Holdings, an independent oil and natural gas company, whose board Hunter Biden once sat on. He was accused with unlawful self-enrichment and legalization of funds, but never charged. The whereabouts of Zlochevsky, 53, whereabouts are now unknown, although some reports say he’s cooling his heels in Morocco.
- Viktor Mykolayovych Shokin: The former prosecutor general of Ukraine who was ousted while investigating Burisma Holdings over allegations of money laundering, tax evasion, and corruption. Both Trump and his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani have accused Joe Biden of attempting to protect Hunter by helping orchestrate Shokin's ouster. In a sworn affidavit, Shokin, now 67, testified on “several occasions” Poroshenko had “asked me to have a look at the criminal case against Burisma and consider the possibility of winding down the investigative actions in respect of this company, but I refused to close this investigation."
- Yuriy Vitaliyovych Lutsenko: Shokin’s successor as Prosecutor General of Ukraine and the former Minister of Internal Affairs, Lutsenko, 54, is reportedly the unnamed Ukrainian official referenced in a federal indictment as orchestrating the plotearlier this year a plot to oust then-U.S. ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, who was forced out last May. In October, NBC News cited a U.S. official who said Lutsenko had urged two associates of Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani to push for Yovanovitch’s removal. Federal agents arrested the associates, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, as they were about to board a one-way flight out of the country, following an indictment for improper campaign finance activities.
- Arsen Borysovych Avakov: The successful businessman who serves as Ukraine Minister of Internal Affairs is known as “Mr. Clean” in Ukrainian politics. As a minister in Poroshenko’s government, he broke with his administration and used his national police to ensure fair elections, a fact that earned him the respect of Zelenskiy, who not only won by a landslide, but kept Avakov in his position. The influential Avakov shares Zelenskiy’s pro-Western and pro-Trump views. Avakov said he spoke with Giuliani spoke in February about Biden and the 2016 election. According to Business Insider, when asked why Avakov tied Giuliani to Ukraine getting involved in the U.S., Yovanovitch said it related to the "black ledger” -- a handwritten list of $2 billion of allegedly illicit payments the pro-Russia Party of Regions made to people including ex-Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort.
- Dmitro Vasylovych Firtash: Described by the feds as an associate of organized crime, Firtash is a wealthy Kremlin-connected, Ukraine businessman who heads the board of Group DF, an investor in nitrogen, titanium and natural gas. He’s been fighting deportation to the U.S. to face allegations he wangled a titanium extraction permit in India by paying $18.5 million in bribes. His lawyer, Clinton family associate Lanny Davis, insists Firtash is innocent. As part of his defense, Firtash’s attorneys have passed to Giuliani documents that make controversial allegations against Biden and former special counsel Robert Mueller, according to Time magazine. Last month, President Trump appeared to side with Firtash, 54, suggesting Acting U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bill Taylor – a key impeachment witness for Democrats – put fabricated information about the oligarch in a diplomatic cable. Adding to the intrigue: Lev Parnas, an indicted associate of Giuliani “received a sudden windfall of money” from Firtash, according to CNN.
- Vadym Volodymyrovych Prystaiko: Ukraine’s 49-year-old Minister of Foreign Affairs insisted last week that U.S. ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland did not explicitly link $400 million in U.S. military aid to Kiev with the Ukraine government opening an investigation into the Bidens. “I have never seen a direct relationship between investigations and security assistance,” Prystaiko was quoted as saying.
- Andrew Favorov: The director of Naftogaz, Ukraine’s state-owned gas company, Favorov has agreed to meet voluntarily with the U.S. Justice Department as part of its ongoing probe into the business dealings of Giuliani and his Soviet-born business associates Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman. Parnas and Fruman have been indicted on charges of conspiracy, making false statements and falsification of records in connection with Giuliani’s efforts to get the spur the Ukrainian government to investigate the Bidens.
- Rinat Akhmetov: The 53-year-old billionaire oligarch controls Metinvest Group, which allegedly was one of several Ukraine companies that sought exemptions from the Trump administration’s tariffs on imported steel. Akhmetov also owns DTEK energy, whose former commercial director was Favorov, who is now director of Naftogaz.
- Ihor Valeriyovych Kolomoisky: The billionaire businessman, former governor of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast and a key backer of Zelenskiy, rejected Giuliani’s request for help in investigating the Bidens. Giuliani attacked him on Twitter, calling for an investigation of his activities. To counter Giuliani’s threats, Kolomoisky predicted on Ukrainian television that Giuliani would end up in a “big scandal” by pressing for a probe of the Bidens. Kolomoisky, who also has close ties to Israel, is said to advocate for strong relations with the Trump administration, but also with Russia and Putin. He is also reportedly under investigation by the FBI for alleged financial crimes.
- Vitaly Pruss: Described by NBC News as Giuliani’s longtime fixer for Ukrainian deals, Belarus-born Pruss is said to have been approached by President Trump’s personal lawyer to set up a meeting with Mykola Zlochevsky, owner of the natural gas company Burisma that had Hunter Biden on its board. Zlochevsky made it clear he “wanted nothing to do with it." Pruss told NBC News. Now Democrats want Giuliani to hand over all communications he had with Pruss.
- Andriy Yermak: The top Ukraine presidential aide was the main intermediary for Zelenskiy in reported efforts by Giuliani to have Ukraine launch an investigation into the Bidens, as well as look at allegations of Ukrainian election interference in 2016. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times last month, Yermak said false statements accounts made by Trump’s inner circle threatened to poison U.S.-Ukrainian relations and gave Trump a cover for suspending military aid. Yermak, who took a secret meeting with Giuliani in Madrid, added that he had spent weeks over the summer in a bid to change the U.S. decision to suspend a military aid package to Ukraine and was dismayed Ukraine was mired in Trump’s possible impeachment.
- Victor Pinchuk: The 58-year-old billionaire businessman and philanthropist – whom Trump calls a personal friend -- is founder of the investing company EastOne Group and the pipe and steel manufacturer Interpipe Group. He gave a $150,000 donation to the Donald J. Trump Foundation in exchange for 20-minute appearance by the president at a conference in Kiev via video link. The donation, which was solicited by Trump’s now jailed former lawyer Michael Cohen, was revealed following a subpoena by special counsel Robert Mueller of Trump organization records involving business with foreign nationals.
- Yulia Tymoshenko: former Prime Minster of Ukraine and Leader of the All-Ukrainian Union "Fatherland" party. According to Politico, she says the 2010 election was stolen from her by former President Viktor Yanukovych and his consultant Paul Manafort, who was paid in cash. As part of a plea bargain with special counsel Robert Mueller, the former Trump campaign chairman copped to helping conduct a media campaign in the West directed against Tymoshenko to undermine support for her by the Obama administration.
- Viktor Fedorovych Yanukovych: fourth President of Ukraine who was removed from power following the 2014 Ukrainian revolution and fled to Russia. Now wanted for high treason in Ukraine. He hired Manafort during his 2010 campaign to help boost his public image. Federal prosecutors say between 2010 and 2014, Manafort was paid more than $60 million by Ukrainian sponsors. Manafort was convicted of tax and bank fraud in 2018.