openDemocracy has published this article on Ukraine-West relations by a European diplomat on condition of anonymity.
Disappointment is lingering in Kyiv. Despite President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s meetings with Angela Merkel and Joe Biden this past month, Ukraine is finding itself increasingly alone when it comes to a clear path for Euro-Atlantic integration – and opposition to Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline. That said, neither of these meetings contained public criticism of corruption, sanctions or the Minsk peace agreements with Russia, so Kyiv has some reasons to be satisfied.
The hope that Biden taking office in the White House would help return Washington’s attention to Ukraine after the country’s 2014 revolution has proved to be a vain one. The flip side is that in the context of frank admissions about how far Ukraine has to go in its journey to EU membership, Western demands for greater anti-corruption (or anti-oligarch) efforts are being seen in Kyiv as going hand-in-hand with the advancement of the West’s own interests in the country.
