NewsTracker Answers for week of Oct. 07, 2019

Q: Ukraine depends on U.S. military aid to survive in a tough neighborhood, but President Donald Trump’s request for a “favor” has landed the Eastern European nation in the middle of the Congressional impeachment inquiry. Where is Ukraine?

Circle the area on this map


Q: Ukraine has depended on the military aid in its conflict with Russia which is . . .

A. Northwest of Ukraine

B. Northeast of Ukraine

C. Southeast of Ukraine

D. Southwest of Ukraine


B. Ukraine is bordered by Russia to the northeast and east. It is bordered by Belarus to the northwest; and Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Moldova to the west and southwest. To the south it is bordered by the Black Sea, Sea of Azov and the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia seized from Ukraine and annexed in 2014. The United States and European Union placed sanctions on Russia because of the annexation they called illegal.


Q: About a month after suspending U.S. military aid, Trump asked the president of Ukraine in July to investigate presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son. Last week, he publicly asked which foreign power to investigate the Bidens?

A. China

B. Dubai

C. Indonesia

D. United Kingdom


A. Trump denied he would try to tie a potential investigation into the Biden family to this week’s resumption of talks on a trade deal with China. The president wants Ukraine and China to investigate business activities of Hunter Biden, the son of his leading Democratic rival. The Trump Organization and the president’s children have ongoing business deals involving China, Dubai, Indonesia, the United Kingdom and more than two dozen other nations.


Q: More than 13,000 people have died in five years of fighting between government forces and pro-Russian rebels forces in eastern Ukraine. A peace proposal that would grant the region autonomy triggered a demonstration Sunday in Ukraine’s capital . . .

A. Bratislava

B. Bucharest

C. Kiev

D. Minsk


C. Kiev is the capital and with more than 2.8 million people is the most populous city in Ukraine. Thousands of people protested against President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's deal with Russia to schedule an election in the disputed region and call back Ukraine’s forces from the current contact line with separatist fighters. Protesters called the deal “capitulation” to Russian President Vladimir Putin.


Q: Among those killed in Ukraine conflict were 283 passengers and 15 crew on an airliner shot down in 2014 by a Russian-built missile fired from territory controlled by pro-Russian rebels. The plane was flying from Amsterdam in which nation?

A. Belgium

B. Germany

C. France

D. Netherlands


D. The Malaysia Airlines flight was bound from Amsterdam, the most populous city in the Netherlands, to Malaysia’s capital and largest city, Kuala Lumpur. A Dutch-led investigation later concluded that the missile-launcher had been transported from Russia on the day of the crash, fired from a field in a rebel-controlled area, and returned to Russia after it was mistakenly used to shoot down the airliner. Russia denied any responsibility.