Reuters: Political feuding imperils Ukraine’s future, Obama’s record
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, right, applauds to U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, left, after he addressed the Ukraine Parliament in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2015 (AP)
The two main points the Americans are pushing at Kyiv are 1) protect political stability, 2) strictly fulfil the IMF demands, the source in Washington says
On his most recent visit to Kyiv, U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden said he spends more time speaking to Ukrainian officials than to his own wife.
He may not be exaggerating: senior U.S. 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.
Watch also ‘Bidenmania’ in Ukraine: The key message from US Vice President Joe Biden’s address in Kyiv
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.
A look at statements issued by Biden’s office shows that since 2014 the vice president spoke by telephone 40 times with Poroshenko and 16 times with Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk.
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