Senate aide probed over Ukraine trips, $30K aid donation: report
A senior Senate aide heavily involved in securing US support for Ukraine is reportedly under congressional investigation over his frequent visits to the war-torn country and providing thousands in military gear under the table.
Kyle Parker, senior adviser for the US Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe — commonly known as the Helsinki Commission — may have violated rules regulating the activities of foreign agents by wearing Ukrainian military insignia on tours of the front lines and hiring a Ukrainian national for a US government fellowship despite objections from ethics and security officials.
The allegations against Parker are contained in a secret report compiled by the commission’s director and general counsel, which was reported by the New York Times.
Most troublingly, the report suggests that Parker may have been “wittingly or unwittingly being targeted and exploited by a foreign intelligence service,” adding that unspecified “counterintelligence issues” should be referred to the FBI.
In April of last year, during a lecture at the University of Maine, Parker recounted how he used $30,000 raised by veterans and volunteers and given to him by a relative in Ukraine, to purchase range finders and wind gauges from Amazon and a US-based manufacturer.
Parker, an alumnus of the University of Maine, claimed that he delivered the hardware on Easter weekend of 2022 to “guys who are going to take it up with the snipers in the front.”
“You never go into wartime Ukraine with an empty suitcase,” Parker said during the lecture, during which he recalled going to the front days ahead of the Russian invasion — despite public warnings by the State Department against doing so.
According to the Times, Parker has said that he traveled to Ukraine at least seven times since the Russian invasion on Feb. 24, 2022, boasting that he was “the most well-traveled American official in wartime Ukraine.”
A rep for Parker told the Times the trips were not official visits, but the outlet reported that he publicly spoke as if they were, and some of his traveling companions were under the same impression.
Parker did not keep those trips secret, posting pictures on social media showing him wearing camouflage and the insignia of Ukrainian military units.
In one February 2023 post to X, Parker said he was “[p]lotting the liberation of #Lunhansk” with a Ukrainian commander.
Another video showed him cutting up and urinating on a Russian hat.
“Parker’s unofficial travel and media promoting himself as a foreign military interlocutor raise further legal and ethical concerns amid reported Ukrainian military corruption,” the Times quoted the report as saying.
The Parker spokesperson alleged that the aide was the victim of a “campaign of retaliation” over allegations he lodged against the authors of the confidential report.
Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC), the chairman of the commission, reportedly recommended Parker be fired in response to the report and warned his actions could endanger “future Ukraine aid.”
Wilson’s office referred The Post to the Office of the House Employment Counsel, which did not immediately return a request for comment.
The Post also contacted a representative of the Helsinki Commission and attempted to reach Parker.
The revelation about the confidential report on Parker comes with Congress locked in a stalemate over whether or not to replenish aid to Kyiv, which has been forced to ration munitions, according to Ukrainian officials.
Earlier this month, Ukraine was forced to pull out of the eastern city of Avdiivka, handing Russia a significant victory on the battlefield.
US officials such as National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan have blamed that military setback, in part, on Congress’ failure to re-up aid in a timely manner.
President Biden initially asked Congress to marshal additional aid to Kyiv last August, but Republicans declined to do so, demanding that any new aid be coupled with bolstered border security.
Earlier this month, a $118 billion package featuring border security reforms and foreign aid went belly up in the Democrat-controlled Senate due to GOP opposition. That deal had been negotiated for nearly four months.
The Senate then passed a $95 billion package with about $60 billion in aid to Ukraine. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has refused to take that package up for a vote in the lower chamber.
Biden and the top four congressional leaders are expected to meet Tuesday, when they will likely discuss the gridlock over aid to Ukraine and the looming threat of a partial government shutdown Friday.
