U. S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken came, offered America’s support, and left on May 6.
He met with President Volodymyr Zelensky, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, lawmakers and leaders of civil society.
Blinken emphasized US support on two fronts: In prevailing against Russia’s war and, domestically, in waging a vigorous fight to root out corruption.
“We see that on Ukrainian borders the amount of Russian troops is the largest since 2014,” said Blinken. “We are against Russian actions concerning their attempts to destabilize Ukraine.”
Although the Kremlin said it would withdraw its forces that it amassed near Ukraine’s border in April, in reality, Zelensky said only some 3,500 troops were withdrawn and some 80,000 troops remain close to Ukraine’s eastern border.
Russia’s goal remains the same: to slowly strangle Ukraine. As of May, Russia gave out over 527,000 Russian passports to residents of Kremlin-occupied Donbas in an attempt to cement its claims.
But Blinken’s visit didn’t focus just on support against the Russian aggression.
Ukraine’s reluctance to deliver promised judicial reform, curb the influence of oligarchs, institute corporate governance and prosecute high-level corruption has caught the attention of the U.S.
“Ukraine faces twin challenges: aggression from outside coming from Russia, and in effect, aggression from within coming from corruption, oligarchs, and others who are putting their interests ahead of those of the Ukrainian people,” said Blinken. “And these two things are linked because Russia also plays on that internal aggression, using corruption and using individuals to try to advance its interests as opposed to those of the Ukrainian people.”
What didn’t happen
Blinken had an eventful day in Kyiv, the city from which Blinken’s great-grandfather Meir Blinken emigrated in the early 20th century.
The main message was clear — the U.S. will help Ukraine prevail in its ongoing defensive war against Russia.
With Kuleba and Metropolitan Epiphanius, head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Blinken laid flowers to the National Wall of Reemergence dedicated to Ukrainian soldiers killed during the ongoing Russian invasion.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken (C), Metropolitan Epiphanius, head of Ukrainian Orthodox Church, (L) and Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba lay flowers at the Wall of Remembrance memorial for the Ukrainian soldiers who were killed in the during the war with Russia, in Kyiv, on May 6, 2021. (AFP)
“In their photos, we see the lives of those people, and we think about their parents, their brothers and sisters,” said Blinken.
However, Ukraine wants more than empathy — it wants weapons and tougher sanctions.
Zelensky said he wanted Ukraine to receive a NATO Membership Action Plan at the alliance’s summit in June. However, Blinken didn’t publicly support Ukraine’s NATO aspirations during his visit.
He also didn’t publicly mention the issue of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, although Zelensky told the press that he had discussed it with Blinken.
“We know that in Europe unfortunately there are different opinions on this issue, but we are grateful for U.S. support on this issue and for the implemented sanctions,” Zelensky said.
Ukraine is expecting the U.S. to kill Russia’s $11 billion gas pipeline project that would bypass Ukraine in delivering gas directly to Germany. So far, the U.S. has only sanctioned some companies involved in the construction, delaying but not stopping the project.
Zelensky also reminded Blinken that Ukraine has invited Biden to take part in the celebration of 30 years of the country’s independence on Aug. 24. Biden visited Ukraine six times as vice president for Barack Obama.
Blinken arrived in Kyiv by way of London, where he met with G7 foreign ministers, a gathering where threats from Russia and China featured prominently on the agenda. There, Blinken reaffirmed that the U.S. is “closely watching” Russia’s actions in Ukraine and ready to impose tougher sanctions if the Kremlin takes more aggressive steps against Ukraine.
Some of those tougher actions were signaled recently by U. S. Assistant Secretary of State George Kent. In comments to the Financial Times on May 3, he said that sanctioning the holders of dollar-denominated Russian debt will put pressure on the Kremlin by limiting its ability to borrow money at attractive interest rates.
“Pressing the flesh and PR event and show of support. Not sure what specifically new we are seeing from this,” wrote Timothy Ash, a senior strategist for BlueBay Asset Management Company.
Domestic challenges
The U. S. caution in delivering major promises to Ukraine isn’t surprising. Ukraine has struggled to keep up with its part of the bargain — moving forward with reforms in key areas.
“There are powerful interests lined up against reform and against anti-corruption efforts,” Blinken said. “Those include external forces like Russia but also internal forces like oligarchs and other powerful individuals who are pursuing their own narrow interests through illegitimate means at the expense of the interests of the Ukrainian people.”
Effectively combating corruption is one of the most important tasks, crucial to improving the lives of the Ukrainian people, Blinken said.
“So we talked about a number of areas where this work is so important: corporate governance, transparency, the integrity and independence of the anticorruption bodies, the judiciary, and we had a very good — a very good exchange on all of that,” he added.
After meeting with government officials, Blinken held an online roundtable with the leaders of Ukraine’s civic society.
Among the few people invited were Mykhailo Zhernakov, head of Dejure, a legal non-profit and Daria Kaleniuk, the executive director of the Anti-Corruption Action Center. Both have been critical of Zelensky’s record.
“Blinken’s main message: The level and the quality of support to Ukraine from the U.S. is directly correlated with the quality of the conducted reforms in government and concerning anti-corruption,” wrote Kaleniuk after the meeting. “And the marker by which the reforms are judged is (cooperation with) the International Monetary Fund.”
According to Ash, Ukraine is far from completing the required political and economic benchmarks to receive the desired stand-by arrangement from the IMF. One of such benchmarks is the judicial reform.
In early March, despite strong protests from anti-corruption activists and foreign diplomats, Ukrainian judges have chosen their own overseers. The Congress of Judges filled four vacant spots on the High Council of Judges, the judiciary’s main governing and oversight body.
“The system of selecting the Council members needs to be radically changed, so that the members are not elected by the judicial mafia and politicians, but rather are elected by members of non-government watchdogs and independent international experts,” Zhernakov wrote about the decision.
On May 5, the Venice Commission sided with Ukraine’s civic society demanding to reform the High Council of Judges.
Another issue that Blinken discussed both with civic society and with Zelensky is the controversial firing of Andriy Kobolev from the state-owned monopolist Naftogaz which signaled the absence of independent governance of state-owned companies.
“The secretary of state isn’t hiding his shock from the destruction of Naftogaz’s corporate governance,” said Kaleniuk.
