Ukraine prosecutor to audit old cases involving gas company that employed Joe Biden's son

Ukraine's new prosecutor general has said he is reviewing cases involving the gas company where Joe Biden's son sat on the board following president Volodymyr Zelenskiy's promises to Donald Trump that the prosecutor would look into the situation.

Ruslan Ryaboshapka told journalists in Kiev that his office was conducting an audit of previous investigations by the prosecutor general, including cases against Mykola Zlochevsky, owner of the Burisma gas company, and US-sanctioned gas magnate Serhiy Kurchenko.

“There are 15 cases where Zlochevsky, Kurchenko and other people and companies could be involved or could be targets for investigation,” Mr Ryaboshapka said. “We are now looking again at all cases that were closed or broken up or were investigated earlier to make a decision to reconsider those instances where illegal procedural decisions were made.”

At the same time, he said no foreign or Ukrainian politicians had tried to influence his decisions on criminal cases.

Mr Zelenskiy said he was “not involved” in the audit of the investigations when asked by ABC News on Friday.

Mr Giuliani and Mr Trump have claimed that leading Democratic presidential candidate Mr Biden got then-prosecutor general Viktor Shokin fired in 2016 for his supposed attempts to investigate Burisma.

While investigations have been open for years against Burisma over events that occurred before Hunter Biden joined the board, the prosecutor general's office failed to move them forward, an employee told The Telegraph, and several were handed over to the national anti-corruption bureau.

After Mr Trump asked Mr Zelenskiy in their July phone call to look into allegations that Mr Biden stopped an investigation into his son, the Ukrainian president said “the next prosecutor general will be 100 per cent my person” and “will look into the situation, specifically to the company that you mentioned in this issue”.

'Smoking texts' reveal Ukraine White House meeting quid pro quo

Text messages released by congress late Thursday suggested that Mr Zelenskiy had agreed to investigate Burisma and alleged Ukrainian interference in the 2016 election in exchange for a meeting with Mr Trump.

Once the White House would gave a date for the meeting, the presidential administration would “call for a press briefing announcing upcoming visit and outlining vision for the reboot of US-Ukraine relationship, including among other things Burisma and election meddling in investigations,” Zelenskiy aide Andriy Yermak told US special envoy Kurt Volker on August 10.

Mr Yermak did not answer phone calls on Friday.

In a text message to the US ambassador to the European Union, acting ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor worried that Mr Zelenskiy “is sensitive about Ukraine being taking seriously, not merely as an instrument in Washington domestic, reelection politics”.

“Absolutely, but we need to get the conversation started and the relationship built,” EU ambassador Gordon Sondland responded.

Oleksandr Danylyuk, who resigned as head of the national security council last week, told Ukrainian media on Friday that he was present for Mr Zelenskiy's phone call with Mr Trump but would not share details.

“The key goal now of the (president's) team is just to correct mistakes, including their own,” he said.

The dubious election meddling allegations stem from the 2016 publication of a “black ledger” listing secret payments by a Ukrainian president to Trump campaign head Paul Manafort, who is now in prison for tax fraud.

A former aide to Mr Zelenskiy, Mr Ryaboshapka was appointed prosecutor general in late August, taking over from Yury Lutsenko, who met with Rudy Giuliani at least twice as Mr Trump's lawyer sought dirt on Joe Biden and Ukrainian election interference.

Mr Lutsenko has since said there was no evidence Joe or Hunter Biden broke Ukrainian law.

In 2014, a UK court froze $23 million belonging to Mr Zlochevsky, who was environmental minister until president Viktor Yanukovych was ousted by protests that year, but released it after a letter from the Ukraine prosecutor general's office said the Ukrainian tycoon was not suspected of any crime.

Asked about being mentioned in the Trump-Zelenskiy call, Mr Ryaboshapka claimed that “prosecutor general's is outside politics” and his record would prove it, even though previous prosecutors have been accused of targeting opponents of the president.