Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko appears to be coming away from the 53rd annual Munich Security Conference feeling reassured by Western support and buoyed by meetings with U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and many others.
After meeting with Pence, Poroshenko said: “We have once again received a powerful signal that the U.S.A, stands with Ukraine, that Ukraine is among the top priorities for the new U.S. administration. The issue of Crimea and decisive struggle for the liberation of Crimea also remain among priorities,” Petro Poroshenko said.
According to the presidential press service, Poroshenko and Pence discussed coordination of bilateral response to Russia’s aggression. Pence “was very well informed about the details of the process that takes place,” Poroshenko said.
Poroshenko said his meetings confirmed strong solidarity with Ukraine and that Ukraine will be involved in all decisions involving the nation.
“It is very important that Ukraine remained among the main topics of the security conference today and yesterday. We have received another confirmation of a very powerful global solidarity with Ukraine that helps us during the aggression of Russia,” Poroshenko said of the German conference that runs from Feb. 17-19.
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis have also been among the top U.S. officials dispatched to Europe — a NATO meeting in Brussels, a G20 meeting in Bonn and the security forum in Munich — to reassure Europe. U.S. President Donald J. Trump has praised Russian President Vladimir Putin and criticized the European Union and NATO, but since the Feb. 13 firing of his national security adviser Michael Flynn over contacts with Russia, Trump has made statements strongly backing the Western alliances and telling Putin to return Crimea to Ukraine while his press secretary has also called on Russia to de-escalate violence in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas, partially occupied by Kremlin-backed separatists.
