When he was in his third year, he fled Ukraine with his twin, father and grandmother, looking for a better tomorrow in the United States. They had only their bags and $ 750.

That was 40 years ago, during which time the Jewish refugee Alexander S. graduated. Vendman at Harvard University, a lieutenant colonel in the US Army, became a diplomatic scholar and expert on Ukrainian affairs at the White House.

On Tuesday, his past will meet with his present, after he became the first White House official to testify in an investigation seeking to isolate US President Donald Trump over his handling of Ukraine, Alexander S.'s motherland. Findman.

The testimony of Colonel Findman would usher in the most important shift in the investigation into Trump's impeachment investigation, which has seen many turns in the past.

According to the New York Times, the man plans to tell investigators that he believed that Trump acted correctly when he pressed the Ukrainian president during a phone call to take a "dirty" action against his potential opponent in the next presidencies Joe Biden.

Findman also said he felt obliged to convey the contents of the call to White House lawyers, because Trump's behavior endangered national security.

In addition, Vindman's testimony will be an occasion to showcase the story of twins fleeing Ukraine and living a unique experience in the United States.

This story begins from their early childhood when they were wearing shorts and blue hats in a Brooklyn neighborhood inhabited by refugees from the Soviet Union, passing through adulthood where they took two remarkably similar paths.

Like Alexander, Yevgeny also held the rank of lieutenant in the US military and joined the Trump national security team as a lawyer in charge of ethics issues.

When Alexander decided to report his concerns about Trump's call, he brought his brother with him while talking to John Eisenberg, the chief lawyer for the US National Security Council.

Both brothers are married and his office is located in the west wing of the White House, and according to photographer Carol Kittman, who has had close friendship with their family since childhood, they are intelligent, very discreet and reserved.

Along with their elder brother, they left Kiev with their father, shortly after their mother died 40 years ago, and their grandmother came with them on the mother's side to help raise them. The family sold their property while staying in Europe waiting for a US visa.

"I think their father felt that as Jews they could do better in the United States," she says.

Coral recalls the day I first met the twins in Brooklyn and spoke to them in Yiddish, and returned the next day to write a story about their lives.

"When my father came to New York he worked in more than one field to support us, while we were learning English at night. He emphasized the importance of our integration in the country that embraced us. My family worked to realize their dream in America."

This passage is part of a speech that Alexander Wiedemann plans to give to investigators, while Ketman posted on her website pictures of the family's story.

In a 1980 photograph, the twins are shown wearing shorts and blue hats, just a year after they arrived in the United States.

In their thirteenth year, Kittman was photographed wearing red shirts. When Lieutenant Colonel Vendman married, he was photographed with his bride in the next (Jewish prayer dress).

The father worked until he became an engineer, and the older brother enrolled in the training of officers.

In 1998 Alexander graduated from New York Binghamton University, received a military mandate from Connell University, and completed his training at Fort Benning Ga.

In 1999 he was sent to South Korea, and the following year he commanded an anti-armor infantry unit there.

In his testimony to investigators, the man intends to mention his multiple missions in various regions, including South Korea and Germany, and his participation in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, where he was injured by a roadside bomb, an incident in which he was awarded the "Purple Hurt Award."

Since 2008, he has been an officer in the external regions specializing in Eurasian affairs and is an expert in the field of military-political operations.

Vendman holds a master's degree from Harvard University in the field of `` Russia, the European East and Central Asia '', and previously worked at the US embassies in Kiev and Moscow, and in 2018 he joined the US National Security Council.

Recently he was quoted as saying that he was in trouble with external influences in order to falsify a story about Ukraine.

According to documents seen by The New York Times, Vendman was referring to Rudy Giuliani, a personal attorney for US President Donald Trump, and his efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate Trump's potential rival Joe Biden in the upcoming presidential election.

Findman plans to tell investigators that he has filed two objections against Trump's handling of Ukraine, according to a draft obtained by The New York Times.

In May, Trump asked Fendman to accompany Rick Perry to Kiev to participate in the inauguration of Volodymyr Zelinsky as president of Ukraine.

In July, Findman had deep concerns about pressure from US officials on Zielinski to push him to investigate Biden.

These fears increased when he heard Trump's call with the Ukrainian president on the 25th of the same month.

He said he did not believe Trump had acted properly when he asked a foreign government to investigate a US citizen. "I was worried about the use of US aid to Ukraine," he said.

Given his fluency in Ukrainian and Russian, he had the opportunity to be a witness to Trump's pressure on more than one occasion.

According to the New York Times, Ukrainian officials have asked Vendman for advice on how to deal with Rudy Giuliani.

Vindemann's testimony relates to duty, honor and patriotism, while also referring to the life of a refugee and an immigrant.

"I sit here as a lieutenant in the military and as a refugee ... I deeply respect American values, ideals and the power of freedom," Vendman said in the draft, seen by The New York Times.

This is what you expect from both twin brothers. "When the virtues of immigrants are mentioned, look at what these two immigrants are doing for this country," says Ketman.