Biden meets Poroshenko in Kiev, reassures support

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden delivers a statement on the results of talks with Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko, in Kiev, Ukraine Monday, Dec. 7, 2015.

The conflict in eastern Ukraine broke out past year following a referendum in the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, in which people voted overwhelmingly for reunification with Russian Federation.

US Vice President Joe Biden is paying a two day visit to Ukraine which has already been labeled as “historic” by many experts.

Biden addresses deputies of the Ukrainian Parliament in Kiev on December 8, 2015.

Hollande’s mission has been handled with warning by the White House and overt fright by Ukraine, a rustic of about forty million. However, it is not clear if Biden will touch upon possible additional military assistance to Ukraine during his visit early next week. He warned Kiev against backsliding in its fight against corruption. “It’s no exaggeration to say the hopes of freedom-loving people the world over are with you”.

Kyiv’s sharp break with Moscow in the last two years was triggered by its move toward closer trade with the West. One more chance. One more chance.

“It’s absolutely critical for Ukraine…to root out the cancer of corruption”, Biden stressed. The people need to see that in ways – that the ways of the past are permanently gone.

Ms. Malmstrom also said she was “a bit surprised” when “Russia came unexpectedly with a very, very long list of amendments that they presented at the table”.

Russia, which has fomented unrest in Ukraine, “is using your corruption to undermine you”, Biden added. “And Ukraine has not been able to re-establish control over its border”, Stoltenberg said.

In addition, Washington believes that Ukraine needs reforms in security and defense, in order that it withstand “pressure from Moscow” and “Russian aggression”.

“It is your responsibility now”, Biden said. “We remember the Orange Revolution”, he continued, recalling the country’s 2004 uprising that ended in disappointment when authorities failed to pass reforms. “Hopes were let down”, he said, noting that oligarchs are not interested in reforms.

Since the beginning of November, OSCE monitors registered an increase in fighting, mostly around what’s left of the airport in Donetsk, a separatist stronghold, Alexander Hug, the principal deputy chief monitor of the OSCE’s Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine, told USA TODAY. It is not enough just to set up the Anti-Corruption Bureau.

As a US senator, Biden said that he resented it when speakers appeared to lecture him on what to do.

Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said the decision looked rushed and biased.