You're reading: Yatsenyuk emphasizes unity with Poroshenko as Biden visits again

Hours before a potentially critical visit by U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden to Kyiv, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk moved to dispel persistent rumors of political discord with President Petro Poroshenko.

Yatsenyuk told a news conference in Kyiv on Nov. 20 that a coalition agreement led by their respective factions in parliament – along with three other parties – will be signed soon. He said that he met with Poroshenko on Nov. 19 and said the “final draft is being written by key political factions.”

He predicted the deal among his People’s Front party, Poroshenko’s bloc, the Samopomich (Self-Help) party, the bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko and Oleh Lyashko’s Radical Party will be completed by the end of November, about a month after the Oct. 26 parliamentary election.

Later, as if to underscore the point of harmony with Poroshenko, Yatsenyuk gave this response when asked whether he agreed with the president that Ukraine is prepared to fight a “total war” with Russia.

“I always agree with the president,” Yatsenyuk said.

Yatsenyuk’s press conference comes as speculation mounts that Biden’s visit to Ukraine – his third this year – might bring additional commitments of military or economic aid to the nation. Biden, who will be accompanied by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, is expected to make a public statement on Nov. 21. Biden visited Kyiv on April 22 and again on June 7 to attend Poroshenko’s inauguration.

The latest Biden visit comes as leaders of the Republican Party, which takes control of both houses of the U.S. Congress in January, are pushing for America to supply Ukraine with lethal defensive weapons – a move that has drawn renewed threats from Russia.

Ukraine certainly needs outside help on both fronts – in combating the Russian-led war in the east and to prop up its ailing economy, which may suffer a 10 percent decline this year, 24 percent inflation and a currency that loses half of its value.

Yatsenyuk mentioned two key meetings ahead – one on Nov. 20 with the head of state-run Naftogaz on possible purchase of Russian natural gas, for which prepayment is required. The other, of course, in coming days is with the International Monetary Fund, which has a visiting delegation. There is a consensus that the IMF’s $17 billion, two-year loan package is inadequate, and some economists think the low-interest loan package should be doubled.

“Ukraine needs fast-track and urgent reforms,” Yatsenyuk said. “I want to send a very strong signal of unity between the president and prime minister, between the pro-presidential faction and the People’s Front party chaired by me.”

But Yatsenyuk acknowledged that the government’s efforts to reform Ukraine’s Soviet-style ways and revive its economy could be torn asunder by Russia’s eight-month-old war in the eastern Donbas oblasts of Donetsk and Luhansk.

“We have already a reform agenda. The Ukrainian government is ready,” Yatsenyuk said, citing the energy, defense and judicial sectors as among the first slated for big changes. “The war being waged by Russia is a key impediment to the economic and social development of my country…This war heavily affects the Ukrainian economy.”

Yatsenyuk called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to adhere to the Sept. 5 Minsk peace agreement, which calls for a cease-fire, sealed borders, withdrawal of Russian troops and their proxies and an end to Russian military supplies to the region.

Ukraine, in return, would grant broader local autonomy to those regions, but not independence, as the Kremlin-backed separatist leaders are demanding.

“This war is not just against Ukraine,” Yatsenyuk said. “President Putin is waging a war against the West and Ukraine is just a playing field to him. Putin’s actions are a threat to everyone, a threat to the global order, a threat to global peace. This is a direct threat to the European Union and NATO member countries.”

Yatsenyuk rejected calls by the Kremlin for the Ukrainian government to negotiate with separatist leaders, who he labeled as Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) agents that Putin tried to legitimize through rigged elections.

“We will never talk to terrorists,” Yatsenyuk said. “I can repeat it and translate it into different languages, even Russian, if they do not understand Ukrainian or English.”

Yatsenyuk said that Ukraine cut off state social welfare payments, including wages and pensions, to Ukrainian citizens in the areas controlled by “terrorists” because the separatist leaders would steal the money. He said payments will resume, including all back payments due to citizens, when Ukraine’s government is back in full control of the two oblasts.

He said that Ukraine would supply gas and electricity to the separatist-controlled areas, even though it would cost Ukraine’s government an additional $300 million by the end of the year. But he announced a possible plan to trade the gas and electricity for coal supplies from the region. He said the negotiations would involve talks with Ukrainian companies, not separatist leaders.

Yatsenyuk also said that sanctions, plus a drop in the price of oil from $110 a barrel to $78, are hurting Russia’s economy, causing foreign currency reserves to bleed and the Russian ruble to plummet.

“The Russian people paid the price for these far-right, nationalistic, post-Soviet ideas of the Russian regime,” Yatsenyuk said. “They are hostages of these bloody dreams of a new Soviet empire, similar to the people of Donetsk and Luhansk.”

Despite the dire situation, Yatsenyuk closed the press conference at the Cabinet of Ministers building with this assurance: “Thank you, everything is going to be fine. Trust me.”

Kyiv Post chief editor Brian Bonner can be reached at [email protected]