Ukraine resumes electricity supplies to Crimea

U.S. Vice President, Joe Biden, gave the promise on Monday during a meeting with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in Kiev.

“The U.S. will maintain pressure until Moscow fulfills its [peace deal] commitments”, he said.

Biden will also meet Monday with Ukraine’s hawkish premier Arseniy Yatsenyuk before delivering a highly-anticipated address to parliament on Tuesday.

Moreover, the measures also included an additional support of 10 million euros funded by the Instrument contributing to Stability and Peace, which will be allocated for the “restoration of governance, reconciliation and peace-building in the eastern part of Ukraine, most affected by war and displacement”.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden is paying a visit to Ukraine.

Biden’s three-day visit is his fourth to Kiev since Russian Federation annexed Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula in March 2014 and then watched with approval as pro-Kremlin insurgents carved out their own region in the eastern industrial heartland of the ex-Soviet state.

Biden said the latest developments in the Middle East in no way appeased Washington’s anger with Putin and support for Poroshenko’s pro-Western team.

Key U.S. officials say Biden will seek to reassure Kyiv that Washington will continue an array of economic sanctions against Russian Federation, until Moscow and its Ukrainian rebel allies fully implement internationally mediated agreements to end the conflict and pull back heavy weapons.

“We have no choice but to file a lawsuit against Ukraine in case of the borrower’s non-fulfillment of its obligations in full by December 20 of this year, which will mean a sovereign default in Ukraine”, Russia’s Finance Ministry said in a statement. The announcement comes as Ukraine works to reform its political and economic systems and continues a territorial battle with Russian Federation.

Crimea depends on Ukraine for at least 70 percent of its electricity and the first phase of Moscow’s planned energy bridge between the peninsula and the Russian mainland is not due to be completed until later this month.