US Vice President Joe Biden (left) shakes hands with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. (Photo: AFP/VNA)

Speaking after a meeting with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, the US leader stressed that the Minsk agreement signed last February “will not succeed if Russia does not fulfill its commitments.”

“The United States and the international community will not accept Russia’s invasion of Crimea,” he said. “This action is contrary to international law, is wrong, and will not be accepted under any circumstances.”

On the same day, the European Union (EU) and Ukraine affirmed that the two sides will implement the free trade agreement in January 2016 as planned, despite Russia's threat of economic retaliation if Moscow's concerns are not resolved.

According to Reuters, also during this visit, US Vice President Joe Biden announced a new $190 million in financial aid to Ukraine to help the Eastern European country fight corruption and streamline its government structure, emphasizing that Kiev still has a lot of work to do in the reform process.

“It is absolutely essential for Ukraine to root out corruption,” Biden said at a press conference after meeting with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. “The country is at a critical juncture, because what happens in the coming year (2016) will very likely determine the fate of Ukraine for generations to come.”

Ukraine's Western backers have repeatedly urged Kiev authorities to keep their commitment to reforms under the terms of a $40 billion international bailout aimed at reviving the war-torn economy and nearing bankruptcy due to corruption and long-term economic mismanagement.

For its part, Russia has repeatedly affirmed that "there is no such thing as Russia occupying Crimea. Crimea is a region of the Russian Federation and has declared that it will not return Crimea to Ukraine, despite sanctions related to Moscow's annexation of this Black Sea peninsula./.

According to Vietnam+