Michael Bociurkiw: Is Ukraine still serious about anti-corruption reforms?

Published Feb. 2, 2021. Updated Feb. 3 at 7:53 am

Billionaire Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky was in demand with journalists at the Yalta European Strategy conference in Kyiv on Sept. 13, 2019. He and the YES conference sponsor, fellow billionaire oligarch Victor Pinchuk, were chummy. They seemed to have forgotten a bitter lawsuit, now settled, in which Pinchuk accused Kolomoisky of ordering murders, accusations that Kolomoisky denied.

Photo by Matthew Kupfer

Michael Bociurkiw is a global affairs analyst and host of the podcast Global Impact.

On Tuesday, U.S. President Joe Biden picked up the phone to call Russian President Vladimir Putin and, in addition to warning him that there would be consequences for harming U.S. allies – something Donald Trump never managed to bring himself to say – reaffirmed America’s “firm support for Ukraine’s sovereignty.”