Durham TV show creator flies to Ukraine to explore Trump impeachment questions

DURHAM, N.C. (WTVD) -- Two weeks ago, just before the impeachment hearings went public, Durham television producer Steve Boston hopped on a flight from RDU to Ukraine. He says he wanted to know more about this small fledgling democracy that was now a big part of the conversation about the potential impeachment of an American president.

"And I was watching a lot of television. I thought you know I haven't seen the Ukrainian side; someone from Ukraine talking about the issues," Boston told us from his production office in Durham.

Boston had the time and the talent as a veteran TV show creator to go to Ukraine's capital city to tape the pilot episode of his newest show: Kitchen Table 2020.

"(The show is about) seeing what's happening in the world," Boston said. "Sitting around a kitchen table with well-known people or any person."

Boston rented an apartment in Kiev. He sits down at the kitchen table with a young Ukrainian activist, a member of parliament and a former government official for former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.

In their conversation about Ukraine's sudden notoriety in the midst of an American impeachment inquiry and President Trump's relationship with Ukraine's new reform-minded president, Boston says it always came back to one thing -- Russia.

"The strong anxiety that they have about Russia encroaching further in. And if U.S. support is questionable. Is there aid. Will there be aid," Boston described.

It's likely Kiev was listening closely when former Trump Russia expert Fiona Hill testified Thursday -- batting down conspiracy theories, repeated by the president, that Ukraine, not Russia, meddled in the 2016 presidential election.

"I refuse to be part of a narrative or legitimize an alternative narrative that the Ukrainian government is a U.S. adversary and Ukraine, not Russia, attacked the U.S. in 2016."

Boston's cameras documented a Ukranian citizenry wholly consumed with fighting off a Russian invasion - who want no part of being in the middle of an American political fight.

"(Ukranians) don't want to take sides," Boston said. "If they say they're supporting Trump, the Democrats will be angry at them. If they say they're supporting Biden's view or the Democratic view, Trump will be mad at them. Their main focus is the anxiety about Russia."

Boston is back in Durham pitching his pilot to several networks. He's hoping the show gets picked up for a series.