so paul manafort was convincing russia that if trump won then trump would help russia take over ukraine. ukraine is our ally russia is our enemy so thats awful. but trump probably had nothing to do with this part of it, manafort just saw it as win win since hes friends with trump and also the oligarchs right? all this must have just given russia even more motivation.
Whether or not Trump was aware of or involved in Manafort offering Russia support in dealing with Ukraine (and keeping crimea, the part of Ukraine that Russia had recently invaded), while also passing along campaign info to oligarchs is something that Mueller was not able to prove.
If Trump didn't know then there are a ton of crazy coincidences.
For example, we know that on July 29, Manafort tells Kilimnik that Aug 2 would be a good date to meet in NYC.
Trump ABC interview on July 31:
https://www.justice.gov/storage/report.pdf (page 139)