Ukraine’s prime minister said his 60-day-old government wants to make a quick start in tackling deep-seated corruption in order to boost the economy and attract international investment.
“Reforms provide us with an opportunity to change our country and reach its maximum potential,” Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman said at a National Press Club briefing Thursday at the end of a packed Washington visit. “Due to corruption, there are no opportunities for transformation and no future for our country. No one will invest in a country with an environment of corruption.”
Mr. Groysman spoke hours after NATO announced a “comprehensive package of assistance” for Ukraine and one day after Vice President Joseph R. Biden said the Obama administration was offering $220 million in assistance this year to help the former Soviet republic enact reforms.
Though this week marks Mr. Groysman’s first visit to the United States as prime minister, it’s not the first time the U.S. has heard these ideas. Mr. Groysman, a 38-year-old former mayor of the western Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia, is the latest in a long line of prime ministers who have failed to turn around the government in Kiev.
Taking office in April, Mr. Groysman faced flagging growth and pro-Russian separatists defying the central government in the east.
Mr. Groysman said Thursday that he will focus on beefing up anti-corruption agencies, privatizing some state enterprises and reforming the courts. The courts, he said, are Ukraine’s “weakest link” against corruption.
The Ukrainian prime minister dodged a question about presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. He said he was focused instead on “unprecedented aggression” from Russia.
“Every country in the world cannot feel safe,” he said. “In times like this, it is very important for the civilized world to maintain a responsible attitude and to assess all the modern challenges in an objective manner.”
Asked about the building pressure in some EU countries to ease or lift economic sanctions against Russia, Mr. Groysman said the sanctions should be lifted if Moscow respects international law and removes its troops from the sovereign country. The U.S. and the European Union imposed sanctions after Russia’s annexation of the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in March 2014.
“We view the sanctions as punishment for invading an independent country in the 21st century,” Mr. Groysman said. “The sanctions can be eliminated only when the aggressor returns within its own borders and when the aggressor announces his aggressive plans.”
Mr. Groysman also said his government might consider a settlement of financial claims with Russia under similar circumstances.
“In reality, Russia has huge debts to Ukraine, and they could be somehow decreased by the de-annexation of Crimea and the withdrawal of Russian troops from the territories of [eastern Ukraine],” he said, “and then if these things happen we could consider the settlement of the financial debts.”
Mr. Groysman arrived in the United States on Tuesday for what he called an “intensive program” involving more than 30 meetings in just a couple of days. He is widely regarded as a protege of President Petro Poroshenko.
• Jessie Fox can be reached at jfox@washingtontimes.com.
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