Political feuding imperils Ukraine’s future
KYIV: On his most recent visit to Kyiv, US Vice-President Joe Biden said he spends more time speaking to Ukrainian officials than to his own wife.
He may not be exaggerating: senior US officials, including Biden, are deeply embroiled in trying to persuade Ukraine’s leadership to hold the line and implement the reforms they have promised to carry out.
But despite these efforts, divisions inside the ruling coalition are growing and many of the reforms are stalled.
If the leaders fail, it will be a deep embarrassment to Washington, the EU, and the IMF which sacrificed relations with Russia to support these people.
“I think we may have logged close to 1,000 hours on the telephone,” Biden told reporters during his visit this month, referring to his calls with Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko, before adding the quip that it was more time than he spends talking to Mrs Biden.
The Obama administration, with the EU, has invested deeply in making a success of Ukraine’s Feb 2014 revolution, when protesters forced a Russian-backed leader to flee and pro-Western opposition figures took over.