U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew arrived has arrived in Ukraine. Today he meets with Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk.
“After the meeting there will be a joint press conference with the Ukrainian Prime Minister, Minister of Finance and U.S. Secretary of the Treasury,” according to a statement.
Earlier, on November 5, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden held a telephone conversation with President Petro Poroshenko and stated that the U.S are ready to further assist Ukraine.
Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Pavlo Klimkin said that out of the 54 EU recommendations for lifting the visa regime, Ukraine has so far carried out 18 and is in process of carrying out 36 more.
“We don’t have unexecuted recommendations,” he said.
The minister added that the visa regime with Ukraine may be lifted in summer or fall of 2016.
“I am absolutely certain that it is possible to get the visa-free regime in the summer or early fall. But for that to happen we must adopt laws and everything must work within the framework of these laws,” Klimkin said.
The final report of the relevant EU institutions about Kyiv’s fulfillment of the Action Plan on visa liberalization is expected on December 15.
Tsarist dynasty descendent elected mayor in Sumy region:
The French descendant of one of the Russian Empire's richest family dynasties this week became mayor of the Ukrainian town of Hlukhiv, where his family made its fortune.
Michelle Tereshchenko, 61, took office in the Sumy Oblast town after receiving more than 65 percent of the vote in Ukraine’s local elections on October 25.
He is a descendant of the famed Tereshchenko dynasty of industrialists and philanthropists, who made their fortune in sugar-beet production.
He was born in Paris after his family fled to France during the Bolshevik Revolution.
His family ties -- the Tereshchenkos built most of the 19th-century town center -- served him well in the elections. Now he promises to establish the "true eastern border of Europe" in the small town a few miles south of the Russian border.
Tereshchenko told AFP that he hoped to establish a flourishing, corruption-free democratic government like the one his grandfather had hoped to establish in Tsarist Russia.
"It failed in Russia. But it will succeed in Ukraine," he said.
Tereshchenko first made headlines in March when Ukrainian President Poroshenko granted him citizenship. (AFP, Euromaidanpress.com)