KIEV, Ukraine, April 22 (UPI) -- Vice President Joe Biden finished his trip in Ukraine pledging U.S. support to the fledgling government as the the threat of Russian invasion heightens.
"We want to be your partner, your friend in the project and we're ready to assist," said Biden. "You have an opportunity, a chance to bring about an era of reform.
Biden's words of encouragement and support were supplemented by a pledge of $50 million in U.S. aid to help the government in the upcoming May elections. The offer was paired with a warning, though, to eliminate the corruption that has plagued the country for so long.
"You have to fight the cancer of corruption that is endemic in your system right now," Biden told the Ukrainian cabinet.
Biden's reassurances of American support, however, did nothing to hinder the tensions in eastern Ukraine that are making a Russian military intervention in the region look increasingly likely. The masked militants in Sloviansk and Donetsk, looking scattered last week, now appear to be more organized.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also did nothing to alleviate Ukrainian and Western concerns when he accused Ukraine of violating the peace accords reached in Geneva.
In eastern Ukraine, the pro-Russian residents of Donetsk plan to hold a referendum in May to declare independence, fueling concerns of a replay of the methods that led to the Russian annexation of Crimea.
