Sergiy Tigipko, a Ukrainian banker who has declared his intention to run for president, has said that Ukraine needs to define more exactly its real interests are in its relationship with the United States.
Tigipko was commenting on the nomination of John Tefft as United States Ambassador to Ukraine.
“Washington’s decision to fill the vacancy of U.S. ambassador in
Kyiv is the good news. The bad news is that the current Ukrainian
authorities are not able to formulate their interests in the bilateral
relationship. At present, everybody is discussing Tefft’s career – his
recent work in Georgia. It is much more important to talk about what
Kyiv wants from the relationship with the United States, what our
realistic interests are in this relationship,” Tigipko said.
Tigipko said that the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine is a very serious
channel of communication with the U.S. elite, which Ukraine should know
how to make use of. In Tigipko’s opinion, the current Ukrainian
leadership has great problems with this, his press service said.
