Sen. Murphy asked Assistant Secretary of State Wess Mitchell, whether he raised the issue with President Poroshenko and whether the U.S. President or Vice President voiced their concerns to Petro Poroshenko over Ukraine’s lagging on energy and anti-corruption reforms.
“This is an enormous priority for the [State] Secretary,” Wess Mitchell said, adding that Rex Tillerson has stated it repeatedly. He also said he was “applauding the Ukrainian Rada and government and people for the tremendous strides that they made in reform in the period since 2013.”
“I don’t think that any of us could ever have imagined in our wildest dreams the kind of progress that they’ve made in such a short period of time,” he said.
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“To reform not only some of the easier areas which are seeing the progress but the harder structural areas of reform. This is especially true in two areas – in the establishment of anti-corruption court and in addressing energy sector reform, particularly with regard to gas tariffs, both of which are necessary for Ukraine to comply with the conditions for the next IMF tranche. I have raised these subjects repeatedly and I’m in constant contact with Poroshenko, Groysman, Foreign Minister Klimkin, Parubiy, others, as is the Secretary. We’re also coordinating very closely with the IMF to make sure that our messaging is in sync,” said Wess Mitchell.
