Biden meets Poroshenko in Kyiv, reassures support
Joe Biden- image source thefriskyUS Vice President Joe Biden meets Ukrainian leaders on Monday to kickstart their drive against corruption and reassure them of Western support in the face of the current focus on Syria. He heads to Ukraine next week.
“Ukraine is on the cusp – what happens in the next year is likely to determine the fate of the country for generations”, Biden said. During a joint briefing following bilateral talks with Ukraine’s president, Petro Poroshenko, Biden said, “It’s absolutely critical for Ukraine, in order to be stable and prosperous and part of a secure Europe, to definitely, thoroughly, completely root out the cancer of corruption“.
Biden will also speak to Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk later Monday and address the Ukrainian parliament Tuesday.
Biden’s speech on Tuesday indicated the West’s growing impatience with Ukraine’s lack of progress in reforms.
Speaking from Kyiv, euronews reporter Sergio Cantone, said: “So the United States is giving strong support to Ukraine in the conflict against Russian Federation”.
A major point of discussion will be how to ensure that “Russia and the separatists live up to their obligations under the Minsk Agreement”, the official said.
He said a conservative estimate suggested that 18 months of fighting had killed at least 9,115 people and injured 20,797, including civilians, members of the Ukrainian armed forces and separatist fighters.
With this announcement, the United States now has committed $2 billion in loan guarantees and almost $760 million in security, programmatic, and technical assistance to Ukraine since the end of the Yanukovych regime in 2014.
All U.S. moves and decision involving the Ukraine crisis is provoking Russia, Hagopian told Press TV.
The vice president “will emphasize the need to implement recently passed anti-corruption reforms”, the official said.
“The invasion by Russian Federation of Crimea will not be accepted by us or by the global community”. A recent poll by the Yaremenko Ukrainian Institute for Social Research showed that 72 percent of those asked do not believe Ukraine is heading in the right direction, saying either the reform process is moving too slowly or not at all.
Russia, which has fomented unrest in Ukraine, “is using your corruption to undermine you”, Biden added.
“I assume that’s going to be a serious theme of the journey – that nothing that is occurring within the Middle East has modified one iota of our dedication to the Ukrainian individuals and to their safety”, the U.S. official stated.
