Biden announces more USA aid for Ukraine
VedomostiPower lines from Ukraine to Crimea were blown up on November 20 and 21 by Ukrainian activists.
Russia has received an official refusal from the USA government to provide guarantees for Ukraine’s liabilities, Russian news agencies reported on Saturday, citing Russia’s Finance Ministry.
Biden also stressed the need for Ukraine to ramp up the fight against corruption and undertake critical reforms.
Biden, who arrived in Kyiv on Sunday, assured Ukraine of USA support, including an additional $190 million in American aid to help conduct reforms. “That’s why he spends so much time hiding at home the presence of troops here in your country”, he told the Ukrainian lawmakers.
The senior USA official said Biden would take extra care to stress that the overtures toward Putin in no way affected the West’s support for Kyiv. Moreover, US Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt has criticised the General Prosecutor’s Office on numerous occasions, by stressing its responsibility in fighting corruption in Ukraine. So says Mustafa Dzemilev, a Ukrainian MP and leader of the Crimean Tatars, the group which has led the energy blockade of the Russian-occupied peninsula.
Biden used both his meeting Monday with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Tuesday’s parliamentary appearance to drive home the message that Washington remained fully committed to Kyiv despite the recent shift in global attention to Syria.
“A default situation lies ahead (for Ukraine), just what we were speaking about”, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday.
Fighting between Ukrainian forces Russian-backed separatists in japanese Ukraine has diminished since early September.
Ukraine’s former president, Viktor Yanukovych, had to flee the country in February 2014, following months of anti-government protests in Kyiv and other cities, to a large extent fueled by rampant corruption.
“Minsk can not succeed if Russian Federation does not fulfill its commitment and President Putin fails to live up to the promises he has repeatedly made to my president, to you and to the worldwide community”, Biden said, adding that Russian Federation is “systematically violating” the ceasefire agreed to in Minsk.
Ukraine’s Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, right, greets U.S. Vice President Joe Biden in Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, Dec. 7, 2015.
“Russia put forward an offer for restructuring… unfortunately our interlocutors have not accepted this initiative”, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.