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The question of whether President Trump leveraged military assistance to Ukraine for personal gain is at the heart of the impeachment inquiry. Today, we speak with our Ukraine correspondent on why that assistance was so important to Ukraine \u2014 and the United States \u2014 in the first place.\n\nGuest: Andrew E. Kramer, who covers Ukraine for The New York Times and is based in Moscow. For more information on today\u2019s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.\xa0\n\nBackground reading:\xa0Petro O. Poroshenko, who was Ukraine\u2019s president until May, knew his country\u2019s independence hinged on American support. So he waged a campaign to win over President Trump.As vice president, Joe Biden tried to press Ukraine\u2019s leaders to clean up corruption and reform the energy industry. The story of that effort has been overtaken by his son\u2019s work for a Ukrainian gas company.