As vice president, he sought to demonstrate Western support for the ex-Soviet state.
By Tracy Wilkinson and Sergei L. Loiko
KYIV, Ukraine — Four days before President Trump was inaugurated in January 2017, the outgoing vice president, Joe Biden, was in Ukraine — his sixth visit in seven years — to deliver a rousing farewell speech.
“You’re fighting both against the cancer of corruption, which continues to eat away at Ukraine’s democracy within, and the unrelenting aggression of the Kremlin,” he told local leaders, members of parliament and other politicians in Kyiv, the capital.
“It’s imperative that you continue to strengthen all of your anti-corruption institutions to root out those who would return Ukraine to rule by cronyism and kleptocracy,” he added.
The rousing speech reflected not only Biden’s focus on driving out entrenched corruption in Ukraine but the Obama White House efforts to help the former Soviet republic on its difficult path to democracy.
Trump has now turned that on its head, arguing that it was Biden and his son Hunter who were corrupt — although no evidence has emerged to indicate that.
