OpenDemocracy: Ukraine and the West - an insider’s view - Sep. 16, 2021

OpenDemocracy: Ukraine and the West – an insider’s view

By OpenDemocracy.

Published Sept. 16, 2021 at 4:59 pm

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky meets with U.S. President Joe Biden in the Oval Office on Sept. 1, 2021. This was the two leaders’ first face-to-face meeting and the first trip to the White House for a Ukrainian leader in more than four years. The U.S. and Ukraine issued a joint statement calling bilateral relations “stronger than ever.” And the U.S. sweetened the atmosphere with more than $100 million in new aid. But Zelensky did not get unequivocal U.S. support of Ukraine’s bid for NATO membership. He also did not persuade Biden to change course and impose sanctions that would stop the completion of the Russian-German Nord Stream 2 pipeline.

Photo by Press Service of the President of Ukraine

Editor’s note: OpenDemocracy has published this article on Ukraine-West relations by a European diplomat on condition of anonymity.

Disappointment is lingering in Kyiv. Despite President Volodymyr Zelensky’s meetings with Angela Merkel and Joe Biden this past month, Ukraine is finding itself increasingly alone when it comes to a clear path for Euro-Atlantic integration – and opposition to Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline. That said, neither of these meetings contained public criticism of corruption, sanctions or the Minsk peace agreements with Russia, so Kyiv has some reasons to be satisfied.