Biden meets Poroshenko in Kyiv, reassures support
The U.S. will also continue to train the Ukrainian armed forces to defend the region from any aggression from Russian Federation.
“A default situation lies ahead (for Ukraine), just what we were speaking about”, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday.
In this photo taken Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2015, Russian President Vladimir Putin, center, Crimean leader Sergei Aksyonov, second right, and Energy Minister Alexander Novak, right, attend the inauguration of electricity connection with the Russian mainland in Simferopol, Crimea.
A discussion will also be made about the implementation of the Minsk Agreements in order to deescalate hostilities between Russian-backed separatists and the Ukrainian government.
The United Nations estimated that almost 8,000 civilians and soldiers had been killed as of this fall.
Biden said the latest developments in the Middle East in no way appeased Washington’s anger with Putin or slackened its support for Poroshenko’s pro-Western team.
“He (Biden) mentioned oligarchs, oligarchs who are using the judiciary system now, who are not paying taxes and also corrupted people in the parliament, in the government, who think about their own interest instead of the country’s interest”, said Anna Hopko, an independent MP.
FILE – Maidan self-defense activists shout slogans in front of the Ukrainian parliament building in Kyiv on July 1, 2014, as they call for the ratification of an agreement with the European Union.
“We have no choice but to file a lawsuit against Ukraine in case of the borrower’s non-fulfillment of its obligations in full by December 20 of this year, which will mean a sovereign default in Ukraine”, Russia’s Finance Ministry said in a statement.
Anti-government protests in February 2014 were largely fueled by the country’s widespread corruption.
Russia’s annexation of Crimea plunged Kyiv’s relations with Moscow into a crisis further inflamed by a war between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian troops in eastern Ukraine.
“Much more needs to be done to reform the prosecutor-general’s office so that it actually enables anti-corruption efforts as opposed to standing in (their) way”, the U.S. official said.
More than 11 years later and two years since the start of Ukraine’s Euromaidan Revolution that eventually ousted Viktor Yanukovych, corruption remains rampant in the former Soviet republic.