The Helsinki Commission staffer has made seven trips to Ukraine, bringing $30,000 in sniper equipment at one point
A senior staffer at the US Congress is facing an ethics probe over a public speech in which he boasted of delivering sniper scopes to the Ukrainian army, the New York Times reported on Monday.
The outlet described Kyle Parker as a “senior Senate adviser” for the US Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, commonly known as the Helsinki Commission. Parker is one of the committee’s longest-serving aides, described by the times as “a driving force” behind the 2012 Magnitsky Act.
According to a confidential report by the commission’s director and general counsel, leaked to the Times, Parker is being investigated over concerns that his multiple trips to Ukraine and donations of military technology might make him an unregistered foreign agent.
Parker has been to Ukraine at least seven times since February 2022, according to his social media posts, podcasts and lectures reviewed by the Times. There are photographs of him on social networks wearing uniforms with the insignia of Ukrainian units. In one photo he posted on his own X (formerly Twitter) account, Parker said he was “plotting the liberation” of Lugansk.
In written responses to the Times, Parker’s representative – who insisted on staying anonymous – said the camouflage uniforms were a recommendation of “American and Ukrainian security experts,” that Parker never wore the insignia of the units he was “accompanying,” and that his trips were never official.