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In Kiev, Biden says world must stand
against Russian aggression
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 [January 16, 2017]
KIEV (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President
Joe Biden said on Monday that "the international community" must stand
up against Russian aggression and urged the incoming Trump
administration to be a strong supporter and partner of Ukraine.
This is the last official visit to a foreign government that Biden will
make as vice president, reflecting the special focus Ukraine has
received under the outgoing Obama administration.
"You're fighting both the cancer of corruption ... and the unrelenting
aggression of the Kremlin," Biden told reporters, standing alongside
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.
"The international community must continue to stand as one against
Russian coercion and aggression," he said.
Comments by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump in an interview published
on Sunday suggest he is looking to cut a deal with Russia over Ukraine's
head. He mooted ending sanctions on Moscow in exchange for a deal on
cutting nuclear weapons.
Under President Barack Obama, the United States has invested heavily in
helping Ukraine make a success of a 2013-2014 uprising which forced a
Kremlin-backed leader to flee and installed the pro-Western opposition
in power.
Its support for Ukraine, which has included the economic sanctions
against Russia linked to the annexation of Crimea and a separatist
conflict, has contributed to a deterioration in U.S.-Russian relations
to their worst since the Cold War.
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Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko (R) and U.S. Vice President Joe
Biden attend a news conference in Kiev, Ukraine, January 16, 2017.
REUTERS/Gleb Garanich
Biden has been the front man for U.S. policy toward Ukraine,
visiting Kiev five times since the change in power and maintaining
such regular telephone contact with Ukrainian officials that he has
joked he talks to them more than his wife.
(Reporting by Alessandra Prentice; writing by Matthias Williams;
editing by David Stamp)
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