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Biden: Ukraine can complete Orange Revolution

PR dla Zagranicy
Nick Hodge 22.04.2014 10:50
US Vice President Joe Biden has told Ukrainian politicians they have a fresh chance to realise the hopes of the 2004-2005 Orange Revolution but they must fight 'the cancer of corruption.'

US
US Vice President Joe Biden waves after landing at Kiev's airport Boryspil, Ukraine, 21 April 2014. Joe Biden arrived in Kiev for a two-day visit. Photo: EPA/Yuriy Maksimov

Biden talked with a group of nine leading politicians from various parties on Tuesday in Kiev, after arriving in the Ukrainian capital on Monday afternoon.

“This is a second opportunity to make good on the promise of the Orange Revolution,” Biden argued, as cited by the Associated Press.

“The truth of the matter is your fellow countrymen expect a whole lot from you right now,” he said.

Biden stressed that the US is ready to provide financial aid, with the country on the verge of bankruptcy.

“I do not underestimate the challenges you all face. And I do not underestimate the frustration you all must feel when someone like me comes along to say what a great opportunity this is for you all.”

In a reference to the stand-off with Russia over separatists in Eastern Ukraine, Biden said “you face some very daunting problems and some might say humiliating threats are taking place.”

Meanwhile, Moscow and Kiev have blamed each other for the breaking of a fragile Easter truce, with three separatists shot dead during an incident at a checkpoint in Eastern Ukraine on Sunday.

Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said at a press conference that his country is “a big, independent power that knows what it wants,” while simultaneously claiming that Moscow is not manipulating events in Eastern Ukraine.

However, the US State Department has claimed that photographs distributed by Kiev indicating that Russian soldiers are active in Eastern Ukraine provide “further evidence of the connection between Russia and the armed militants.”

One of the photographs appeared to show a soldier who had taken part in Moscow's 2008 Georgian campaign active once again in Ukraine. (nh)

tags: biden, Russia, Ukraine
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