The New York Times remembers how the Ukrainian government blocked 4 investigations into Paul Manafort from going forward as the Trump administration approved sales of missiles desperately needed to defend the country against Russian tanks. (Note that this was all under the previous Ukranian administration, not the current Zelenskyi administration.)
The decision to halt the investigations by an anticorruption prosecutor was handed down at a delicate moment for Ukraine, as the Trump administration was finalizing plans to sell the country sophisticated anti-tank missiles, called Javelins.
The State Department issued an export license for the missiles on Dec. 22, and on March 2 the Pentagon announced final approval for the sale of 210 Javelins and 35 launching units. The order to halt investigations into Mr. Manafort came in early April.
Javelins, where we heard that before? It gets better:
Two months before Ukraine’s government froze the cases, Mr. Horbatyuk reached out to Mr. Mueller’s office with a formal offer to cooperate by sharing evidence and leads.
[...]
In another move seeming to hinder Mr. Mueller’s investigation, Ukrainian law enforcement allowed a potential witness to possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia to leave for Russia, putting him out of reach for questioning.
Perhaps Mueller handed this part of his investigation off to the Southern District of New York when it became clear Trump and Barr would do everything they could to obstruct his office?
The whole article goes into stunning details of connections between the Ukrainian investigation and the Mueller one and is worth a read.