Biden tells Ukraine’s parliament U.S. will never recognize Crimea annexation

A United Nations report released on Wednesday has criticized Russian actions in eastern Ukraine and the Crimea.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden arrives at Borispol airport outside Kiev, Ukraine on Monday, Dec. 7, 2014.

According to some predictions, Vice President Biden will voice concern over the urgency of more active reforms of structural and institutional aspects of the Ukrainian state apparatus.

Hollande’s mission has been treated with caution by the White House and overt fright by Ukraine, a country of about 40 million.

In a December 7 blog about his trip – the fifth to the region as vice president – Biden warned that Ukraine is running out of chances. An historic battle against corruption.

While two people were sentenced to four years each for their roles in attacks on a group of activists, at least two key suspects in the killing of Ukraine’s “Heavenly Hundred” were allowed to escape the country, along with the officials believed to have ordered the attack.

In remarks with President Petro Poroshenko the day before, Biden also highlighted the corruption fight. “The Orange Revolution occurred and hopes were extremely high”, Biden said.

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.

But the official said Biden also will emphasize the need for Ukraine to implement anti-corruption measures.

A renewed ceasefire deal in August sharply reduced hostilities in eastern Ukraine for several months, but clashes have intensified again in recent weeks.

Most importantly, the question of stable U.S. financial assistance to Ukraine is closely tied to progress in conducting anti-corruption reforms within Ukraine’s state institutions. It was for that reason that Biden so rightly appealed to the parliamentarians’ sense of responsibility. “You can bend the arch of history”.

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. Biden said setting up an anti-corruption bureau or anti-corruption prosecutor is not enough. For this fight, you should carry out the judicial reform to bring to justice the persons concerned…

Washington and Kiev’s European Union allies support Ukraine’s view of Russian Federation being an “aggressor” that orchestrated the separatist revolt in reprisal for the February 2014 ouster of a Moscow-backed president – an assertion the Kremlin denies.