Yevgeny Vindman launches run for Virginia congressional seat

Yevgeny Vindman is running for Congress to replace Abigail Spanberger (D) in Virginia's 7th district as she announces her plans to run for governor. Vindman was a national security advisor in the Trump administration. He was the one who reported a claim made by his brother Alexander Vindman about a phone call between President Donald Trump and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky in 2019, which led directly to Trump's impeachment.

Yevgeny was a senior ethics official at the National Security Council, and was the one who brought the report from his twin brother to his superiors. Both Vindman brothers were later reassigned from their positions at the National Security Council after the leak.

Yevgeny later said that he was "politicized" by Trump. "I ultimately became politicized by Donald Trump and his administration as they tried to discredit me," he said. Now, he is a staunch advocate for more funding for Ukraine. He works with a group that assists Kyiv prosecutors in investigating war crimes.

"I’m not your typical candidate," Yevgeny Vindman said ahead of his announcement, per the Washington Post. "The bottom line is that I want to serve my community. I’ve retired from the Army, but now I have a change of mission — and that’s to serve the community I decided to live in and raise my kids in."

It was during that phone call that Trump asked Zelensky about the firing of Ukrainian prosecutor Victor Shokin, who was terminated at the demand of then-Vice President Joe Biden, who headed up the Ukraine policy under the Obama administration. Trump said it was a "perfect phone call." 

Trump wanted to know why Shokin was fired and what Biden had to do with it. For this, he was accused of withholding funding from Ukraine until Zelensky investigated Biden's relationship with the previous president, Petro Poroshenko. Biden had bragged about withholding funds from Ukraine until such time as Shokin was fired. Alexander Vindman told Congress in 2019 that Trump's ask for transparency from Ukraine was "improper."

Alexander Vindman also pitched the Ukrainian government under Zelensky to obtain lucrative defense contracts. The US has funded Ukraine with more than $113 billion in weapons, aid and assistance since February 2022. Vindman proposed $12 million in initial funding for his company Trident Support.