Washington: A former national security council aide warned the Republic lawmakers at the impeachment inquiry hearing on Thursday to not push "fictional narrative perpetrated and propagated by Russia" that it was Ukraine that interfered with the US presidential election in 2016. Fiona Hill said the conclusion by US intelligence agencies that Russia interfered in the election "is beyond dispute." "I refuse to be part of an effort to legitimise an alternative narrative that the Ukrainian government is a US adversary, and that Ukraine — not Russia — attacked us in 2016," said Hill, White House’s top expert on Russia.

She told the House Intelligence Committee that Trump was warned about the false theory that Ukraine tried to help the Democrats in the 2016 polls, but he instead listened to his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, BBC reported. Hill also warned that Russia is making another attempt to interfere in the 2020 election. "The Russian interest frankly is to de-legitimatise our entire presidency... The goal of the Russians was to put whoever became president... under a cloud. This is exactly what the Russian government was hoping for... they have everybody questioning the legitimacy of a presidential candidate... they would pit one side against the other," the Guardian quoted Hill as saying.