KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The White House annoyed and embarrassed Ukraine’s president by releasing his comments in a private conversation with US President Donald Trump — and may have violated the Ukrainian constitution.

The rough transcript of Trump’s call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy released Wednesday showed that Trump pressed Ukraine to “look into” his Democratic political rival Joe Biden. The July 25 call is now at the centre of a US impeachment probe.

“I think such things, such conversations between heads of independent states, they shouldn’t be published,” Zelenskiy told reporters at the UN General Assembly in New York.

He didn’t indicate whether the White House warned him that his comments would be released. But he also said that “No one can pressure me.”

He sought to play down the situation involving Biden and his son’s activities in Ukraine, calling it just one of “many cases that I talk about with leaders of other countries”.

Before the White House released the rough transcript, Trump tweeted that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had received permission from the Ukrainian Government to do so.

“They don’t know either what the big deal is. A total Witch Hunt Scam by the Democrats,” Trump tweeted.

Ukrainian legal expert Roman Marchenko said if the Ukrainian Government didn’t give its approval, the release could have violated constitutional protections of privacy in correspondence and phone calls.

“What Trump did (in publishing the rough transcript) is a violation of Ukrainian laws,” Marchenko told The Associated Press.