The speech of US Vice President Joe Biden in Kiev shows that Washington is interested in exerting pressure on Russia through maintaining tension in Ukraine, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with Italian media.
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U.S. Vice President Joe Biden gestures as he delivers a statement to lawmakers inside Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, in Kiev, Dec. 8, 2015.
Biden – viewed as US President Barack Obama’s pointman on Ukraine – also used his visit to promote a more committed fight against the corruption that has ravaged the country of 40 million for years.
America is urging Ukraine to cut what it describes as the “cancer of corruption”.
President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday traveled to the capital of Crimea to open an electricity connection with the Russian mainland, 10 days after the peninsula lost power coming from Ukraine. “We remember the Orange Revolution”, he continued, recalling the country’s 2004 uprising that ended in disappointment when authorities failed to pass reforms. “We understand how hard some of the votes for reforms are but they are critical for putting Ukraine back on the right path”, Biden said, as cited by ABC.
The senior U.S. official stated Biden would take additional care to stress that the overtures towards Putin on no account affected the West’s support for Kiev.
“The adoption of even the most effective and highest-profile selections that “go well with Biden” exclusively underscores the absence of a coherent technique for reforming our nation”, Ukrainian political commentator Yevgen Magda stated.
“There can be no sanctions relief unless and until Moscow meets all, all of its commitments under Minsk”, Biden said.
Russia has received an official refusal from the US government to provide guarantees for Ukraine’s liabilities, Russian news agencies reported on Saturday, citing Russia’s Finance Ministry.
“Moscow has to fully implement the Minsk agreement and work constructively with Ukraine to create the conditions for free, fair and safe local elections to occur in Donbass”, Biden said, referring to the collective name for the two rebel regions.
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A fresh ceasefire last August has led to a big drop in hostilities, particularly due to the withdrawal of certain heavy weapons by the Ukrainian military and pro-Russian armed groups from the contact line, it said.
