In Kiev, Biden pledges support for fair election, help to weather economic pressure
In Kiev, Biden pledges support for fair election, help to weather economic pressure
(about 2 hours later)
KIEV, Ukraine — Vice President Biden pledged American support Tuesday to help Ukraine stage a successful presidential election next month and to defy Russian economic pressure, but he also warned Ukrainian leaders that they must confront the nation’s rampant official corruption to meet the high political demands of a frustrated public.
KIEV, Ukraine — Vice President Biden pledged American support Tuesday to help Ukraine stage a successful presidential election next month and to defy Russian economic pressure, but he also warned Ukrainian leaders that they must confront the nation’s rampant official corruption to meet the high political demands of a frustrated public.
Biden announced that the United States would provide an additional $50 million in assistance to Ukraine, including $11.4 million to help conduct the election scheduled for May 25, as well as expertise to assist Ukraine in reducing its reliance on Russian energy supplies.
Biden concluded a brief visit here — one devoted largely to providing moral support to a country in political crisis — by announcing that the United States would provide an additional $50 million in assistance to Ukraine, including $11.4 million to help conduct the election scheduled for May 25, as well as expertise to assist Ukraine in reducing its reliance on Russian energy supplies.
The White House also announced $8 million in nonlethal military aid for the Ukrainian armed forces and border guards, including explosive ordinance disposal equipment, communications gear and vehicles. The aid is in addition to a $10 million package that includes military meals and health and welfare assistance, the White House said.
He also announced a modest increase of $8 million in nonlethal security aid to the Ukrainian armed forces and border guards, who are now confronting pro-Russian groups in the country’s eastern regions. The aid includes bomb-disposal equipment, vehicles and radio and other communications gear, and it comes in addition to a $10 million package announced earlier.
“It’s time to stop talking and start acting” to reduce tensions in Ukraine, Biden said in announcing the $50 million in new aid. The United States previously offered $1 billion in loan guarantees and support for an International Monetary Fund loan program worth between $14 billion and $18 billion, the White House said.
The vice president’s presence here was the heart of his message, though, and it was directed both at Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s own leadership. In meetings with Ukrainian lawmakers, civil society leaders and Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, Biden denounced Russia’s annexation of Crimea last month and its support for armed groups occupying government buildings in the east, as well as the corruption he described as endemic to Ukrainian politics.
Earlier, speaking to a group of Ukrainian lawmakers that included three presidential candidates, Biden said the political unrest here in the capital and Russian threats in eastern border regions present a “second opportunity to make good on the promise of the Orange Revolution,” the 2004 post-election uprising that led to the nullification of a rigged presidential vote won by pro-Russian politician Viktor Yanukovych.
Speaking to a group of lawmakers that included three presidential candidates, Biden said the political unrest in Kiev and Russian threats in eastern border regions present a “second opportunity to make good on the promise of the Orange Revolution,” the 2004 post-election uprising that led to the nullification of a rigged presidential vote won by pro-Russian politician Viktor Yanukovych.
The demonstrations that began here last November also targeted Yanukovych, elected president in 2010. Supported by Russia, Yanukovych fled the country in February, although he and his Russian patrons say he was illegally overthrown and remains Ukraine’s legitimate leader.
The demonstrations that began here last November also targeted Yanukovych, who was elected president in 2010. Supported by Russia, Yanukovych fled the country in February, although he and his Russian patrons say he was illegally overthrown and remains Ukraine’s legitimate leader.
The elections next month will pick a new president and, U.S. officials hope, give new momentum to a constitutional reform process designed to shift more political authority to Ukraine’s various regional governments. Biden on Tuesday called the May 25 vote perhaps “the most important in Ukraine’s history.”
The election next month will usher in a new president and, U.S. officials hope, give new momentum to a constitutional reform process designed to extend more political authority to Ukraine’s various regional governments. In a pair of appearances here, Biden called the May 25 vote perhaps “the most important in Ukraine’s history.”
In meeting with Ukrainian lawmakers, Biden expressed sympathy for the challenging political situation they face, squeezed by public protests here and by pro-Russian forces taking government buildings and demanding a vote to separate from Ukraine in some eastern regions. But he also urged them to confront what he called “the cancer of corruption that is endemic in your system right now.”
In his meeting with Ukrainian lawmakers, Biden expressed sympathy for the challenging political situation they face, squeezed by public protests here and by pro-Russian forces demanding a vote to separate from Ukraine in some eastern regions. But he also urged them to confront what he called “the cancer of corruption that is endemic in your system right now.”
“You face very daunting problems, and some might say, humiliating threats,” Biden said. “But the opportunity to generate a united Ukraine, getting it right, is within your grasp. And we want to be your partner and friend in the project. We want to assist.”
“You face very daunting problems, and some might say, humiliating threats,” Biden said. “But the opportunity to generate a united Ukraine, getting it right, is within your grasp. And we want to be your partner and friend in the project. We want to assist.”
Those daunting problems include an accusation from Russia Monday that Ukraine’s government is igniting a civil war in the eastern regions of the country. Moscow also warned that it is prepared to step in if those efforts do not stop.
Biden met for more than an hour with Yatsenyuk, an administration favorite. Afterward, Yatsenyuk said Russia’s support for self-proclaimed separatists in Ukraine’s east is an effort to disrupt the presidential election.
Ukrainian officials said Moscow has already stepped in — and that is the problem. Mounting photographic evidence suggests that Russian special forces have been active in eastern Ukraine for at least the past week, in support of pro-Russian militants.
The prime minister said the next president must carry out constitutional reforms — including providing Ukraine’s various regions authority over budgets and over cultural decisions about language — and must promote the nation’s integration with Europe. Putin has criticized such a move, but Yatsenyuk said Tuesday with Biden at his side that Russia “should not behave as gangsters in this modern century.”
And residents in the restive regions who are opposed to Russia were beginning to speak out Monday against Moscow.
“We will carry out the presidential election,” Yatsenyuk said, adding that the vote will be held under the watch of international observers.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s warning about Russian intervention was the most explicit declaration yet of his country’s intentions toward eastern Ukraine. It came as Biden arrived in Kiev for a two-day visit to meet with political leaders, civil society groups and American diplomats.
Biden is the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit Ukraine since Russia’s move into Crimea two months ago, and he reiterated in appearances here that the United States would stand by the Ukrainian government as seeks to contain ethnic unrest in the east.
Biden warned Russia that future intervention in Ukraine’s volatile east will incur new costs.
A U.S.-brokered agreement between Ukraine and Russia to de-escalate those tensions was reached last week in Geneva. But so far U.S. and Ukrainian officials say little has been done to corral the pro-Russian groups in the Donetsk region.
But the Russian threats held out the possibility that Moscow will be on the move — and soon.
“It’s time for Russia to stop talking and start acting — act on the commitments they made,” Biden said. He demanded that Russia urge the groups to vacate the government buildings they have occupied and send representatives to work with international monitors in the volatile region.
“Those who are deliberately pursuing a civil war, in a possible attempt to start a big, serious bloody conflict, are pursuing a criminal policy,” Lavrov said. “And we will not only condemn this policy, but will also stop it.”
“We need to see these concrete steps, and we need to see them without delay,” Biden said. “We will not allow this to be an open-ended process.”
A tentative agreement reached Thursday in Geneva by Ukraine, Russia, the European Union and the United States has gained little traction. The armed pro-Russian forces in eastern Ukraine have not abandoned the buildings they have occupied, defying the pact.
Before departing, Biden stopped at the eight-century-old St. Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery in Kiev’s old town. The monastery sits a few blocks above the Maidan, the square that demonstrators have occupied since November in a show of protest against government corruption and Russian influence.
Geoffrey Pyatt, the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, said Monday evening that Washington wants to see movement under the accord in “days, not weeks.”
When Ukrainian security forces entered the square in February, hundreds of demonstrators, many of them students, were injured and others killed. The monastery served as a sanctuary for the wounded.
Lavrov, in contrast, lashed out at the new Ukrainian government for “flagrantly” refusing to dismantle the protest camp at Kiev’s Independence Square, known as the Maidan, about 350 miles west of the disputed regions. It was the epicenter of the months-long protests that led to the ouster of Yanukovych. Lavrov demanded that the camp be dispersed at once as a prerequisite for further de-escalation.
Today a makeshift shrine of plywood, tire, and tarps, topped by the flags of Ukraine, Britain, the United States and other nations, stands in front of the graceful pale-blue church in their honor.
On Sunday, three people were killed in a shootout near the eastern city of Slovyansk. Lavrov said the residents of the surrounding Donetsk region craved Russian protection.
“There has been a surge in appeals to Russia to save them from this outrage,” he said at a news conference here in Moscow, invoking a time-honored Russian rationale for military intervention in another country. “We are being put into an extremely complex position.”
Pro-unity forces speak out
As Russia shook its fist, residents of eastern Ukraine who want to remain unified under a central government in Kiev began to publicly oppose the pro-Russian agitators.
In the port of Mariupol and the industrial city of Khartsyzk, residents staged some of the first “pro-unity” rallies in the region.
Protected by a low-key police presence, businessman Vyacheslav Redko stood before a crowd in front of the Soviet-era Palace of Culture in Khartsyzk and demanded that authorities take down the Russian flag now flying above City Hall and remove the barricade of tires at the entrance.
“It is a myth that everyone here wants to join our big brother Russia,” Redko said afterward. “But our side has not been heard, because people are scared or intimidated or they assume they cannot win.”
Redko said he was surprised to see a few hundred of his neighbors at the rally. He would have been happy with a few dozen. “For Khartsyzk? This is a big deal,” he said.
A dozen people mounted the steps of the palace. One elderly pensioner sang a popular Ukrainian folk song. A retired teacher of Russian literature complained that his former students, now pro-Russian activists, had roughed him up for supporting Ukrainian unity.
“We’re afraid of a war with Putin,” said Lyudmila Pogromskaya, an English-language instructor, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin. “We know his troops are on the border. But I think the more people see that they are not alone, the bigger these rallies will become.”
Vladimir Ponomaryov, “the people’s mayor” of Slovyansk, told Russian reporters that self-defense militia members in the city have detained 20 people suspected of spying for Kiev. One of them was Ukrainian journalist and activist Irma Krat, who was shown on Russian TV blindfolded and being escorted by local militia members.
He also said that two bodies have been pulled from the river that runs through the city. The victims, members of the pro-Russian group Donetsk People’s Republic, had been stabbed to death, he said. It was not possible to confirm the claim.
Biden pays visit
Biden, whose main meetings in Kiev were scheduled for Tuesday, is the most senior Obama administration official to visit Ukraine since its crisis with Russia began two months ago, leading to Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s autonomous Crimea region last month.
Pyatt said Ukrainians “are now wondering what comes next and are looking for reassurance that the United States is going to stand by Ukraine.”
In the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, just over the border from Ukraine, Yanukovych called Monday for a pullback of Ukrainian forces from the east and the holding of regional referendums on federalization of the country before presidential and parliamentary elections are held.
Otherwise, Ukraine risks civil war, he said in a statement released to news agencies. The referendums should be held under an international system of control and observation, he said.
“This is the only way to preserve the integrity of Ukraine,” his statement said. “If this is not done, our country will be threatened with fragmentation, which would hardly be a peaceful process. A civil war would be more likely. Come back to your senses! You are setting brother against brother, while somebody else would take advantage of this disaster.”
Englund reported from Moscow. Booth reported from Slovyansk, Ukraine.
