Ukrainian interest. Prime Minister's tour, US aid, and an echo of MH17

Yatsenyuk sought for understanding and support while visiting the leading Western states on both sides of the Atlantic. US and European diplomats were closely watching the parliament’s efforts on constitutional amendments regarding decentralization. The world marked the anniversary of the MH17 tragedy over Donbas.

Ukrainian prime minister flew across the ocean and back to the British Isles, urging foreign businesses to invest in Ukraine’s economy. Yatsenyuk also met with US President Barack Obama, promising to prevent the collapse of the Coalition and deal with the crisis. The prime minister discussed the economic problems with his British counterpart David Cameron. It is possible that Natalie Jaresko was able to reach an agreement with Ukraine’s foreign creditors Ukrainian on concessions regarding the country’s external debt, which now seems to be vital for the further development of our economy. Andriy Pivovarsky signed an Open Skies Treaty with the US.

It would be naive to believe that the West is altruistic toward Ukraine. Rather, it is about avoiding a crisis scenario for our country. Among other things, our partners tend to freeze the Donbas conflict, pushing the Ukrainian authorities toward unpleasant decisions. It is much easier to influence the official Kyiv authorities than the self-styled republics in eastern Ukraine, dependent on their puppeteers from Moscow. It is no coincidence that Victoria Nuland arrived in Kyiv to observe the Parliament’s voting for forwarding of the draft constitutional amendments for review to the Constitutional Court. Her supervisory participation in the constitutional process led to its excessive politicization, resulting in some side effects like President Poroshenko performing an anthem of Ukraine a cappella along with Oleh Lyashko, leader of the Radical Party; and reading of the parliamentary oath by the lawmakers from the Samopomich faction. If the trend continues, the final vote on the constitutional amendments should witness a paired visit of Barack Obama and Angela Merkel.

The agreement between Iran and the P5+1 group on suspending Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for the country’s return to the global oil market has indeed poured some oil on flames. Barack Obama personally thanked Vladimir Putin for his contribution to the deal, and this generated numerous assumptions about the geopolitical “Iran for Ukraine” exchange between Washington and Moscow. Victoria Nuland expectedly denied any possibility of such exchange, but her speech fell on deaf ears of many Ukrainians due to the weakened position of our state.

Events in Mukacheve forced neighboring countries to boost their border security / REUTERS

Although a Mukacheve shootout resulted rather in an internal political crisis, but there were also some consequences beyond our borders. Slovakia and Hungary have strengthened their state border control, while Budapest admitted intelligence activities in Ukraine to protect the interests of the Hungarian minority. Pavlo Klimkin was forced to accept that such violence could complicate Ukraine’s prospects for obtaining visa-free regime with the EU.

REUTERS

The whole world marked the anniversary of the MH17 tragedy that took lives of 298 passengers of a commercial airliner in the sky over Donbas. Malaysia and several other countries, including Ukraine, insisted on the establishment of an international tribunal to hold the perpetrators of this barbaric crime responsible. Today it is becoming increasingly clear that the crew of a Buk anti-aircraft missile system received their commands from Moscow. Therefore, it is no surprise that Vladimir Putin in his conversation with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte called premature the establishment of such a tribunal. Moscow intends to continue to speculate on this issue, spinning absurd versions of the crime, as if hoping for miraculously avoiding prosecution.

Yevgeny Magda

UNIAN in Google News