An update on Biden's visit from our News Desk:
A lawmaker from Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s party says visiting U.S. Vice President Joe Biden has given assurances of Washington’s full support “in financial terms and beyond” for Ukraine.
Parliamentary deputy Svitlana Zalyschuk said Biden made the remarks during a December 7 meeting with members of parliament, Poroshenko’s administration, and civic society.
After that meeting, Biden met with Kyiv’s Mayor Vitali Klitschko and then went into private talks with Ukraine's president.
Biden was scheduled to meet later on December 7 with Ukraine’s Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk.
On December 8, Biden is scheduled to deliver a highly anticipated speech to Ukraine’s parliament.
It is Biden’s fourth visit to Kyiv since Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimea Peninsula in March 2014 and gave its backing to pro-Kremlin separatists in Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland.
Based on reporting by Reuters, AP, AFP, Interfax, and UNIAN
Arrested Ukrainian Politician Korban Hospitalized With Chest Pains
A jailed Ukrainian politician, Hennadiy Korban, has been hospitalized with what his aides have described as chest pains.
Korban's press secretary Yevhenia Kravchuk said on December 7 that the leader the Ukrainian Union of Patriots party (UKROP) was rushed to a hospital in the city of Dnipropetrovsk overnight.
Kravchuk quoted Korban's lawyer, Yevhen Pashko, as saying that Korban was diagnosed with coronary artery disease.
The 45-year-old Korban was detained on October 31 on suspicion of kidnapping, embezzlement, and having ties with organized crime.
On November 6, Korban was placed under house arrest until December 31.
Korban, a former deputy governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region, and his supporters insist that his arrest is politically motivated.
Korban's party, UKROP, was officially registered in September 2014.
With reporting by UNIAN
Here is today's map of the security situation in eastern Ukraine, according to the National Security and Defense Council (CLICK TO ENLARGE):
