Americans have “gotten to see how severe those consequences are and gotten to see the measure of Zelensky, the man that Trump was trying to extort,” says Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif), the chair of the House Intelligence Committee who had led the impeachment efforts. “It hammers home how despicable an act it was to treat Ukraine as a political plaything.”…

The Democrats’ case against the former president centered on the propriety of political favors, building up to the impeachment article that claimed an abuse of power. But equally central were Russia’s unabating hostilities against Ukraine — “a stable, but still hot war,” as former Colonel Alexander Vindman put it to the House Intelligence Committee in 2019. “We put a very strong emphasis on showing the American people why they ought to care about Ukraine, and bring home to the American people the war that was going on,” Schiff says. The testimonies of Fiona Hill, a senior director for European and Russian affairs on Trump’s National Security Council, and Bill Taylor, the U.S.’s top envoy in Ukraine, had been intended to build that case — as was showing film footage of the war during hearings.

That war “could, at any moment, turn existential for Ukraine,” adds Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.), another impeachment manager. “Any crack in the alliance, any show of weakness, any wavering by America and our allies with regard to our support for Ukraine would be taken advantage of by Vladimir Putin.” When Trump made that phone call, “it sent a message to Putin that the U.S. doesn’t care about Ukraine,” Schiff says. In Jeffries’ estimation, the episode “definitely damaged” the U.S.’s relationship with Zelensky. “At minimum, it froze the relationship at a time when it needed to be strengthened,” he says.