The Administration of U.S. President Barack Obama in the next two weeks will try to persuade Ukraine to go for certain concessions in the conflict with Russia, the Ukrainian news portal LIGA.net reported citing its sources close to President Petro Poroshenko.
The proponents of such compromises want the administration of the new U.S. president to inherit positive – from their perspective – dynamics in the Donbas conflict, which at the same time should Hillary Clinton`s campaign, LІGA.net reports.
The publication`s sources claim that the words have been spoken by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden to the Ukrainian president on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York late September. Mr Poroshenko was forced to explain to Mr Biden that there were certain red lines Ukraine just could not cross because of internal reasons.
According to sources in the Ukrainian Presidential Administration and Foreign Ministry, the U.S. vice president tried to persuade Poroshenko to go for a compromise with Russia in line with the script, written at the negotiations held on parallel tracks to the Minsk talks – the so-called American-Russian format (bilateral talks between U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and Russian president`s aide Vladislav Surkov).
The next two weeks will be crucial for Ukraine, say the sources from the circles close to President Poroshenko.
”The West will be exerting pressure on us and twisting our arms. In the United States, they want to leave a positive legacy. Therefore, Nuland flew to Moscow today. They will put pressure on us in the coming weeks, imposing some frankly unacceptable solutions regarding the road map…” LІGA.net quoted a top-ranked source as saying.
As UNIAN reported earlier, Joe Biden warned Petro Poroshenko of the risk of the EU lifting sanctions against Russia in case of the lack of progress in implementation of reforms in Ukraine.
