Biden makes 2-day trip to Ukraine in sign of US support

In pursuit of these objectives, Vice President Joe Biden announced today in Kyiv, Ukraine, that, pending consultation with Congress, the White House plans to commit approximately $190 million in new assistance to support Ukraines ambitious reform agenda. Last week, he also introduced a special anti-corruption prosecutor whose responsibilities will include rooting out graft and limiting the political power of shadowy business tycoons long seen as obstructing good government practices in the former Soviet republic.

Biden’s address before the Ukrainian Parliament, the first of its kind by a high-ranking USA official since 1991, flew in the face of Russia’s assertion that it is the pro-Western government in Kiev that flouts the peace accord.

MOSCOW-Power supplies to Crimea from Ukraine have been partially restored, the Russian energy ministry said, easing a two-week power outage that has left much of the disputed peninsula without electricity. Ukraine was able to negotiate a 20 percent write-down on $18 billion worth of bonds in August.

Ukraine’s Finance Minister Natalia Yaresko and Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk attend a news conference in Kiev, Ukraine, October 15, 2015.

Through US influence at the IMF, the fund is expected to change its policy of not lending to countries in arrears, allowing Ukraine to continue receiving funds if it fails to pay of the Russian loan.

Since Russia began airstrikes in Syria on September 30, Ukrainian officials have anxious that their own country’s troubles would fade from view, especially if the West begins cooperating with Russia to fight the Islamic State group.

The incident also sparked a reduction of coal supplies to Ukraine from Russia and from the pro-Russian rebel-held eastern Ukraine.

The November 13 Paris assaults additional prompted French President Francois Hollande to attempt to enrol Russian Federation in a “grand coalition” towards IS together with the U.S. and a few European and Arab states.

Administration officials also said the vice president would emphasize that the United States continues “to oppose Russia’s attempted annexation of Crimea” in March 2014.