#poroshenko

By Nahia Sanzo 

Feb. 22: The increase in Ukrainian shelling has led to all kinds of rumors and reactions on both sides of the front line. While the authorities of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics and the representatives of their armies seek to remain calm -- the objective is always to maintain the truce and not return to open battles -- and claim to have responded to the attack, the most alarmist see in the Ukrainian acts the restart of a larger-scale war. The bombings of recent days, which come, as was the case in Poroshenko's time, just a few days after the visit of Ukrainian President Zelensky to the front, make clear a change in trend: that truce in which the bombings had been significantly limited appears to have been broken and there is again the use of heavy weapons, constant attacks in numerous areas of the front, and casualties on both sides.

A late February meeting in Kyiv between Lev Parnas, Igor Fruman and then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko took place at the offices of Ukrainian general prosecutor Yuriy Lutsenko, the people said. It came soon after Messrs. Parnas and Fruman met with Mr. Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer, and Mr. Lutsenko in New York in late January and again in Warsaw in mid-February, Mr. Giuliani has said.

Mr. Lutsenko also attended the February meeting, the people said. Mr. Poroshenko didn’t ultimately announce that he was opening those investigations. Mr. Lutsenko, the prosecutor, in March said he was investigating the Bidens and election interference, but in May said he had no evidence of wrongdoing. No White House meeting resulted from the discussions.

The meeting, which hasn’t previously been reported, shows associates of the U.S. president’s personal lawyer as early as February were pressing the president of Ukraine to open investigations that could benefit Mr. Trump politically in exchange for a White House visit. Mr. Poroshenko lost his re-election bid to Volodymyr Zelensky, who Mr. Trump in a July call urged to investigate Mr. Biden and his son, Hunter, as well as other matters.

Mr. Poroshenko at the time was in a tight re-election race and had expressed interest to aides in visiting Washington. A visit to the White House could have improved his electoral chances and he was open to the idea proposed by Mr. Giuliani’s associates, one of the people said. “He wanted to come to Washington and meet with Trump and then after the state dinner he would have an interview” with a major news outlet, the person said of Mr. Poroshenko. “Then he would say he would investigate meddling in 2016 and the Bidens.”

Robert Costello, a lawyer for Mr. Giuliani, said his client had no knowledge of the meeting. Representatives of Mr. Poroshenko and Mr. Lutsenko didn’t respond to requests for comment. A lawyer for Mr. Parnas declined comment. A lawyer for Mr. Fruman didn’t respond to a request for comment. The White House didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Messrs. Parnas and Fruman were clients of Mr. Giuliani who helped him in his monthslong push for investigations in Ukraine. John Dowd, a former attorney for Messrs. Parnas and Fruman, said in a letter to Congress last month that both men “assisted Mr. Giuliani in connection with his representation of President Trump.”

Mr. Giuliani has said his efforts in Ukraine were on the president’s behalf, “done solely as a defense attorney to defend my client against false charges.”

Messrs. Parnas and Fruman were arrested last month on campaign finance charges. Both pleaded not guilty last month.

At the time of the July call with Mr. Zelensky, Mr. Trump had ordered nearly $400 million in aid to Ukraine put on hold. A whistleblower complaint following that phone call triggered the impeachment investigation by House Democrats, who allege Mr. Trump abused his office by asking a foreign country for investigations that could have benefited his political fortunes. Mr. Trump has termed the call “perfect” and the impeachment investigation a hoax. The aid to Ukraine was released in September under pressure from Congress. Public hearings in the impeachment probe begin next week.

Mr. Biden’s son, Hunter, served on the board of Burisma Group, a private Ukrainian gas company, while the former vice president was spearheading an international anticorruption effort in the country, an arrangement Mr. Trump and Mr. Giuliani have described as corrupt. Both Bidens have denied any impropriety; Hunter Biden has called serving on the board given his father’s role showed “poor judgment.”

Mr. Trump and Mr. Giuliani and their allies also have pushed a theory, without evidence, that Ukraine, not Russia, meddled in the 2016 election by hacking Democratic National Committee servers—a theory at odds with analysis by the U.S. intelligence community and by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

At least four current and former administration officials have testified in closed-door hearings that they believed President Trump was using a White House meeting with Mr. Zelensky, the new Ukrainian president, and the aid to Ukraine as leverage to press Ukraine to open investigations into the Bidens and alleged election interference.

In February, Mr. Poroshenko was anxious to engage with Mr. Trump as he tried to boost his poll numbers before the presidential elections in Ukraine in the following weeks, another person familiar with the matter said. Mr. Poroshenko was angling for a high-profile visit to Washington in April, the person said, which would have been after the first round of voting in late March, but before the runoff vote on April 21.

“He needed a Hail Mary and a state visit in Washington and was ready to become Trump’s best friend in order to secure support,” the person said.

Mr. Poroshenko’s approval rating sagged, and the arrangement discussed in the February meeting didn’t come to fruition, the person said. Mr. Poroshenko finished a distant second place in primary voting in the March election. He told the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington to prepare for a possible U.S. visit before the April 21 runoff, but an invitation never came from the White House, the person said.

Mr. Poroshenko never announced investigations. Mr. Lutsenko, the prosecutor general, however, gave an interview to the Hill, a Washington-based news outlet, in March in which he said he was opening a criminal investigation into alleged 2016 election interference and that he had evidence related to Hunter Biden and Burisma that he wanted to present to the U.S. Justice Department. Two months later, in an interview with Bloomberg, Mr. Lutsenko said he had no evidence of wrongdoing by the Bidens.

—Thomas Grove in Kyiv contributed to this article.