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In
a statement, Representatives Steny Hoyer, the No. 2 Democrat in
the House of Representatives, and Eliot Engel, chairman of the
House Foreign Affairs Committee, called the departure of
Ambassador Masha Yovanovitch politically motivated.
Yovanovitch, a career diplomat who has served during both
Republican and Democratic administrations, has been the subject
of attacks in right-leaning media allied with the Republican
Trump as well as a senior Ukrainian official.
A State Department spokesperson declined to comment beyond
confirming her departure, saying, "Ambassador Yovanovitch is
concluding her three-year diplomatic assignment in Kiev in 2019
as planned."
Yovanovitch's departure leaves the United States without an
ambassador in Ukraine, a country on the front line of the West's
standoff with Russia following Moscow's annexation of Crimea and
support for a pro-Russia insurgency in Ukraine, as Ukraine's new
president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, takes office after winning
April's election. [nL5N2240IK]
(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
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