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Biden Urges Ukrainian Leaders to Fight ‘Cancer of Corruption’ With Sharp Rebuke to Russia, Biden Offers Strong Support to Ukraine
(about 4 hours later)
KIEV, Ukraine — In a display of Washington’s support for the interim authorities here, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. signaled on Tuesday that the United States was ready to support them in securing a unified Ukraine but urged the country’s leadership to battle “the cancer of corruption.” KIEV, Ukraine — Vowing that the United States would never recognize Russia’s “illegal occupation” of Crimea last month, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. on Tuesday reiterated America’s support of Ukraine, declaring that “no nation has the right to simply grab land from another” and calling on Russia to stop supporting masked gunmen who have seized government buildings across the east of the country.
Mr. Biden’s remarks, during a visit designed to show high-level backing from the United States, came a day after Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, accused the government in Kiev of flagrantly violating the international accord reached last week seeking to defuse the crisis in eastern Ukraine. Mr. Lavrov’s remarks were taken as a sign that Russia may be further preparing the groundwork for a military intervention. Mr. Biden’s remarks, made during a meeting with Ukraine’s interim prime minister, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, signaled strong American backing for the shaky new government in Kiev that Moscow does not recognize and condemns as the illegitimate fruit of a putsch engineered by the West.
The Kremlin regards the interim authorities as a product of a Western-backed coup that seized power in late February after months of protests. In recent weeks, officials in Washington, including President Obama, have issued a string of warnings to Russia threatening increasingly harsh economic sanctions if the Kremlin does not help to de-escalate the crisis in eastern Ukraine. But those seem to have gone largely unheeded.
Mr. Biden met on Tuesday with the acting president, Oleksandr V. Turchynov, and scheduled meetings with other officials. He will leave late Tuesday for Washington, a day after he arrived. Mr. Biden’s stern words, accompanied by a pledge of a further $50 million in American aid and help to break Ukraine’s dependency on Russian energy supplies, underscored how little trust now exists between Washington and Moscow, despite their joint role in brokering an international accord last Thursday in Geneva that sought, so far with little effect, to defuse the crisis.
According to news reports, Mr. Biden told Ukrainian leaders that they had an opportunity to generate a united Ukraine, and that the United States stood ready to help end their dependence on Russian energy supplies, although the process would take time. Echoing the view of Ukrainian authorities that the unrest in the east has been instigated and, in some places, directly assisted by Russian military and intelligence personnel, Mr. Biden called on Russia “stop supporting men in masks in unmarked uniforms,” the so-called “green men” who have seized government buildings in at least 10 towns and cities.
He said that Kiev faced “humiliating threats” and daunting problems and, according to Reuters, described the presidential election scheduled for May 25 as the most important in the country’s history. “It’s time for Russia to stop talking and start acting — act on the commitments they made” in Geneva, Mr. Biden said, adding that Ukraine, through an amnesty law and other steps, was trying to live up to its side of the bargain.
Mr. Biden’s visit reflected the high stakes over the crisis in Ukraine after Russia’s annexation of Crimea last month. Thousands of Russian troops have been massed on Ukraine’s eastern border with Russia for weeks, and Mr. Lavrov’s accusations on Monday deepened Western concerns that the Kremlin was creating a basis to justify a similar move in eastern Ukraine. It has repeatedly denied having such intentions. Mr. Yatsenyuk, also ratcheting up criticism of Moscow, said, “No country should be allowed to behave like armed bandits” and called on the Russians to stick to the commitments made in Geneva and “not behave as gangsters in this modern century.”
Mr. Biden also warned Russia on Tuesday that “it’s time to stop talking and start acting” to reduce tension in Ukraine, The Associated Press reported. He announced that Washington would provide a further $50 million to promote political and economic change, including $11 million to be spent on voter education, administration and oversight of the May 25 ballot. Russia, however, blames Kiev for the slim results of the Geneva agreement, which called for the disarming of gunmen and the freeing of occupied buildings. While Washington and Kiev focus on pro-Russian militants holding buildings in the east, Moscow insists that the main reason for the continuing unrest is the Kiev government’s failure to rein in radical Ukrainian groups like Right Sector, which are still occupying City Hall and the central post office in Kiev.
Apart from its support for the fledgling authorities in Kiev, the Obama administration has warned that it will punish Moscow with increasingly harsh sanctions if it does not help to de-escalate the crisis in eastern Ukraine, where the West has accused the Kremlin of manufacturing a “masked” war. Since the ouster in February of Ukraine’s pro-Moscow president, Viktor F. Yanukovych, Russia has repeatedly denounced Ukraine’s new leadership as dominated by extreme nationalists and neo-Nazis who threaten not only ethnic Russians and Russian-speakers in the east but Jews and other minorities across the country. After meeting in Kiev with Ukrainian leaders and members of the Jewish community, however, David Harris, executive director of the American Jewish Committee, said on Tuesday that “the government is committed in word and, we believe, in deed to fighting xenophobia and anti-Semitism.”
Speaking in Moscow on Tuesday, Prime Minister Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia was quoted as saying in Parliament that Russia could minimize the impact of any sanctions imposed as a result of the Ukraine crisis and would insist on fair access to foreign markets for its energy exports. Russian allegations of anti-Semites on the rampage in Ukraine, Mr. Harris said in an interview, were “a dangerous, Machiavellian game” that only endangered Jews. “This is not the first time in history that the Jewish community has been put in the middle of such a game,” he said.
“We shan’t give up on cooperation with foreign companies, including from Western countries, but we will be ready for unfriendly steps,” Mr. Medvedev said in a summary of the government’s work in 2013. On Monday, just as Mr. Biden arrived in Kiev, Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, accused the Ukrainian government of flagrantly violating the Geneva deal and said it was doing nothing to stop extremists, an accusation that was taken as a sign that Russia may be further preparing the groundwork for a military intervention. Russia, which has tens of thousands of soldiers massed on Ukraine’s eastern border, has denied any intention of invading or having any hand in stirring separatist unrest.
In a statement to Ukraine’s Parliament after his meetings with Mr.Yatsenyuk and the interim president, Oleksandr V. Turchynov, Mr. Biden spoke of the “humiliating threats” faced by Ukraine and said the United States was “ready to assist.” But he also stressed that Ukraine needed to put its own house in order, calling on it to “fight the cancer of corruption that is endemic in your system right now” and to reduce its crippling dependence on Russia for supplies of natural gas.
“Imagine where you’d be today if you were able to tell Russia: Keep your gas. It would be a very different world you’d be facing today,” Mr. Biden told Ukrainian legislators. “It takes some difficult decisions, but it’s collectively within your power and the power of Europe and the United States. And we stand ready to assist you in reaching that.”
He applauded Parliament for moving to change Ukraine’s Constitution to devolve more power to its diverse regions, including the mainly Russian-speaking east.
In an effort to calm pro-Russian separatists, the government in Kiev has promised to grant more autonomy to local authorities to run their own affairs. It has also begun preparing an amnesty law to cover pro-Russian militants who voluntarily give up their weapons and vacate seized buildings.
But Kiev has balked at Russian demands for so-called “federalization,” a wholesale reworking of Ukraine’s state structure, viewing as a ruse to divide the country and place big chunks of territory in the south and east, an area that President Vladimir V. Putin last week called “New Russia,” under Moscow’s control.
Speaking in Moscow on Tuesday, Prime Minister Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia was quoted as saying in Parliament that Russia could minimize the impact of any sanctions imposed over the Ukraine crisis and would insist on fair access to foreign markets for its energy exports.
“We will not give up on cooperation with foreign companies, including from Western countries, but we will be ready for unfriendly steps,” Mr. Medvedev said.
“I am sure we can minimize their impact,” he said in a clear reference to sanctions. “We will not allow our citizens to become hostages of political games.”“I am sure we can minimize their impact,” he said in a clear reference to sanctions. “We will not allow our citizens to become hostages of political games.”