For his third time in Ukraine since 2014, U.S. Rob Portman, a Republican representing Ohio, reaffirmed his country’s support for Ukraine.
“It’s in the interest of the Ukrainian people to continue to work with their government, their civil society,” Portman said at an April 5 press conference in Kyiv. “I had the opportunity to meet with government officials yesterday and more today and I will be continuing to talk about the importance of U.S. support for Ukraine at a critical time – and I will continue that fight in Washington D.C. – but also the importance to continue the progress on the (Ukrainian) reforms.”
Most importantly, Portman wants to see progress in forming an anti-corruption court, something that Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko first opposed before abruptly reversing course. Critics blame him for stalling the creation of the court.
“The anti-corruption court would be of course the issue that is I guess most pressing right now,” Portman told the Kyiv Post.
And even though the senator believes that Ukraine’s current administration has performed better than any other during the country’s 25 years of independence, there’s a lot more to do.
“Specifically regarding transparency, rule of law, corruption, it’s important to continue to make that progress,” he said.
Ukraine should also show more economic reform progress to receive continued support from the International Monetary Fund which is contingent upon making progress with the anti-corruption court and lifting the ongoing land-moratorium that has been delayed at least for another year when parliament failed to cancel it back in December 2017.
Despite the need for more economic reforms, Portman’s investment outlook on Ukraine is positive.
“I want to say that Ukraine is a good place to invest for United States business. And my home state of Ohio has some similarities with Ukraine in terms of our industrial sector, our agriculture sector, our IT sector, and I think there’s an opportunity for more foreign direct investment.”
This will help Ukraine increase its exports, attract more foreign direct investment and make its economy more efficient, transparent and stronger.
“Ukraine has relatively small percentages of foreign direct investment compared to other countries,” he said. In 2016, inward FDI amounted to $1.8 trillion globally, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Of that, Ukraine was only able to attract $3.3 billion, or one-hundredth of 1 percent.
But the commitment to future reforms as well as the existing ones – judiciary, healthcare, privatization of inefficient state-owned enterprises, transparency of the UkrOboronProm military-industrial complex, patrol police, corruption investigations, and prosecutions – are necessary, the senator stressed.
“There has been progress, but there needs to be additional progress to encourage companies in my home-state and others around the United States to be able to feel comfortable to make these investments.”
Portman’s previous two visits to Ukraine included one in 2014 right after the EuroMaidan Revolution when he was monitoring the presidential election. He then came back in 2015 to get a better sense of the reform progress and Russia’s military aggression in the Donbas region and Crimea, a war that took more than 10,000 lives.
“This time I’ve seen a lot more progress,” Portman said. “With regard to the military response, there’s a more professional force that has been organized.”
This is partly thanks to U.S. and NATO partners providing military training to the Ukrainian army.
“It has been very helpful,” he said.
“The United States must continue to stand tall with the Ukrainian people in ensuring that their territorial integrity is respected and I believe that sanctions must be in place so long as Crimea is not returned and so long as the aggressive Russian actions along the eastern border and the Donbas continue.”
The U.S. is expected to impose additional sanctions against Russia by April 5, the Washington Post reports. Back in March, the Trump administration finally enacted the most recent sanctions against Russia.
Portman told the Kyiv Post that he personally would like to see more sanctions.
In December of last year, the U.S. gave a green light to provide defensive weapons and increase the amount of financial appropriations in the budget as part of a military assistance package for Ukraine. This includes a sniper package within the mix.
“Last month most of the soldiers who were killed or most of the casualties were probably from sniper fire,” he said. “One of the decisions by the administration just in the last month is to provide a sniper package to the Ukrainian army so that they have the ability to respond to the sniper fire which is killing Ukrainian soldiers.”
But “much of that is contingent upon continued progress on reform” including NATO membership, the senator reminded.
