Former US Ambassador to Ukraine: The West's patience is not unlimited
The West may turn its back to Ukraine if the country does not carry out the reforms. This was said by Steven Pifer, a former US Ambassador to Ukraine and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, at the IX Kyiv Security Forum on Friday, April 15th, Deutsche Welle reported.
"If you engage in political games instead of reform, you may find yourselves in a situation where the West has turned its back to you. We hope that the new government will work, and it must do so quickly, otherwise there is a risk that the patience of the West will run out, it is not unlimited," LIGA.net quoted Pifer as saying.
According to the former ambassador, the new US president will continue to assist Ukraine if the Ukrainian leadership pursues serious reforms and truly fights corruption. "The question is what Ukraine the new US president will see in nine months. If it is the Ukraine that plunged into a political crisis, that does not reform, the president will be tempted to say that the Europeans should deal with Ukraine all by themselves. This is not good," the former US Ambassador to Ukraine said.
At the same time, Pifer admitted that the slowdown of reforms in Ukraine benefits Russia. According to the former diplomat, Moscow is using the conflict in Donbas to pressure the government in Kiev.
On April 15th, during a telephone conversation with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President François Hollande said that they expect the new government of Ukraine, headed by Volodymyr Groysman, to execute reforms faster and take further steps towards a peaceful settlement of the conflict in eastern Ukraine.