Flashback: Blinken Praised the Ukrainian Government and Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin for Successfully Combating Corruption

TRANSCRIPT:

BLINKEN: "What has been the response from Kyiv? Well, despite the conflict, the government has worked very hard to forge a new and better future. It signed the Association Agreement with the European Union. It held free and fair elections, not once but twice under siege and producing, for whatever its deficiencies, probably the best government that Ukraine has had since its independence. It’s been working to undertake deep and comprehensive economic and political reforms. These include laws to enhance transparency in public procurement; to reduce the government inefficiency and corruption; to clean up Ukraine’s energy sector; to make the banking system more transparent, and measures to improve the climate for business and attract foreign investment; to create a new anti-corruption agency; to strengthen the prosecutor general’s office. And today, as we speak, the Rada is also moving forward on political decentralization to give Ukraine’s regions more authority in advance of local elections that, under the Minsk Implementation Plan, are to be held in October. So the Ukrainians are trying, despite the incredibly difficult environment in which they’re living."