Top Senate aide under microscope for unofficial military aid, travels to Ukraine

A senior Senate aide intimately involved in supporting U.S. military aid to Ukraine is under investigation for frequent unofficial trips to the country and for facilitating the transfer of thousands in military aid, The New York Times reported.

Kyle Parker it's useful as a senior Senate adviser to the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE, also known as the Helsinki Commission) and was one of the first high-profile Americans to travel to Ukraine after the invasion of Russia in February 2022. But the CSCE director general and lawyer warned that the transfer of $30,000 worth of military aid may make Parker an unregistered foreign agent in a confidential report seen by the NYT.

The report highlighted the possibility that Parker was “unwittingly or unwittingly targeted and exploited by a foreign intelligence service,” according to the NYT, citing unspecified “counterintelligence concerns.” He recommended referring the case to the FBI.

Parker traveled to the front lines in Ukraine dress in camouflage clothing pad Ukrainian military insignia, according to the report, according to the NYT. The report also alleged that Parker overruled the objections of unspecified congressional security and ethics officials and selected a Ukrainian parliamentary aide, whom the Times identified as Andrii Bondarenko, to participate in a fellowship from US government.

“Mr. Parker's unofficial travel and media touting himself as a foreign military interlocutor raise further legal and ethical concerns amid Ukraine's military corruption,” the report said, according to the NYT.

A representative for Parker told the outlet that he had done “nothing wrong” and was the target of a “retaliation campaign” for his own allegations against chief executive Steven Schrage and the report's authors. including attorney Michael Geffroy. The NYT did not specify the allegations.

The Helsinki Commission is led by members of Congress and has assistants. In general, this contributes to US policymaking on issues related to European security and democracy, the website shows.

South Carolina Republican Rep. Joe Wilson, the committee's chairman, recommended Parker be fired to protect national security after reading the report's allegations, the NYT reported, citing records.

Wilson referred to “serious inappropriate acts involving Ukrainians and other foreigners” and warned that any scandal involving the commission. it could be the nail in the coffin for Ukraine's future aid, according to the outlet.

Parker remains on the commission for now until a broader investigation into the staff's conduct is completed, three U.S. officials told the NYT.

So you cross the river and there are no airstrikes, no bombed apartments, no schools, no hospitals, no torture chambers, no “leakage” camps, no mass graves, the water and heat work, the streets are lit and the children are in school #Ukraine fight for all this, for a normal life. pic.twitter.com/F1Fuopsd2R

—Kyle Parker ‍☠️ (@kyleparkernet) February 2, 2023

“I have never served or had any involvement with intelligence. My participation in Congress was strictly official,” Bondarenko said in a statement about X.

Parker too said a relative in the Ukraine had given him $30,000 in veterans' donations and volunteers, according to the NYT. He bought rangefinders from Amazon and ballistic ventometers from a Philadelphia manufacturer for sniper rifles.

CSCE did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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