Four points from Biden

US Vice President Joe Biden is on a two-day visit to Ukraine. Yesterday during a joint press conference with President Petro Poroshenko the guest emphasized the following four points. First of all, Ukrainian power must eradicate corruption, which is impeding the country’s progress. With this purpose the US is giving 190 million dollars to Ukraine for the next year, to implement the reforms in the system of prosecution service and justice, carrying out transparent privatization of enterprises, and improving the energy security. Secondly, the US will continue to support Ukraine in its struggle against the Russian aggression in the Donbas. Thirdly, he underlined that Russian President Vladimir Putin must fully fulfill all the clauses of the Minsk agreements, which are the only politico-diplomatic way to solve the conflict in the Donbas. Fourthly, Biden emphasized that the US hasn’t forgotten the Crimean topic and considers the annexation of the peninsula inadmissible – Moscow must cease the occupation of Crimea.

 At the end the vice president said that he would stop on the abovementioned questions in more detail in his speech on December 8 at the Verkhovna Rada. At the same time he added that this is his fourth visit to Ukraine over the past four years and he can see good progress. He said that Ukraine is ready for progress, so it should accomplish the aforementioned steps next year, which will be crucial for the country’s destiny. Mr. Biden emphasized that the Ukrainian president and Verkhovna Rada are responsible for realizing the wishes of those who protested at Maidan.

“JOE BIDEN’S VISIT HAS ALREADY INFLUENCED THE UKRAINIAN GOVERNMENT”

Serhii SOLODKY, first deputy director of the Institute of World Politics:

“Joe Biden’s visit has already influenced the Ukrainian government, for we have seen steps taken to meet the wishes of our Western partners in recent days. This applies particularly to fighting corruption, establishing anti-corruption institutions in Ukraine, and an MP close to the prime minister resigning his seat. We see that the US government and Biden’s most burning desires have been taken into account.

“As for the speech Biden is to deliver at the Rada on December 8, I think we will hear the promise that the US will continue to support a united and democratic Ukraine. However, it will be tempered with appeals to the authorities to be more attentive to the public’s demands. There is that much-repeated assertion that the Ukrainians are tired of reforms. However, according to opinion polls, 68 percent simply disagree with the specific reform path we are on, and close to 70 percent consider the fight against corruption to be the top priority. Nonetheless, two years after the Euromaidan started, which aimed to change the system, Ukrainian elites still cannot meet these requirements. In the eyes of Western partners, the Ukrainian society is more mature than its government. However, large numbers of new faces have proven insufficient to break the system. So, let us hope that Biden’s speech in the parliament will be the key and final similar appeal from foreign partners, and Ukraine will demonstrate it is capable of responsible reforms. Even so, the civil society will have to work hard to make the Ukrainian authorities listen to their citizens.

“In earlier times, Ukraine could play games with its partners and conduct a two-directional foreign policy, when we promised one thing to the EU and the US, only for us to agree otherwise with the Kremlin next day. This has brought the most dramatic consequences. Now, fortunately, the space for such maneuvers has vanished, and Ukraine has no alternative to integrating into the Euro-Atlantic political and security space. Whatever the political will of Ukrainian political leaders is, they will sooner or later have to work on the domestic agenda which brings Ukraine closer to being a predictable, prosperous, and responsible political actor. Part of this model is clean government, zero or minimal corruption in the state mechanism. The reform agenda has not become mainstream so far, for the reforms are occurring in a fragmented manner, and their scale is not as large as required by the current difficult situation.”