Tweets show scope of Blinken’s ‘productive’ visit to Ukraine, but not depth

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken posted a series
of tweets chronicling his visit to Kyiv on May 6. The tweets cover meetings
with Metropolitan Epiphany, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, Prime Minister
Denys Shmyhal and President Volodymyr Zelensky as well as embassy workers and
civil society leaders. The tweets follow the theme of Blinken focusing on the
U.S. and its “unwavering support” for Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression
along with mentions of Ukraine’s reforms.

However, epravda.com.ua reported on May 6 of details
of the meetings. The article quotes the executive director of the Center for
Combating Corruption, Daria Kalenyuk, who posted on Facebook about a meeting
with Blinken. In the meeting with civil society leaders, Blinken made clear
that “the level and quality of support of Ukraine from the United States
directly depends on the level of reforms in the field of good governance and
anti-corruption. And the marker of the level of reforms is the IMF.”

James Hydzik: The tweets
put a cap on the visit, and the overall impression and message should be read
as positive. However, Blinken made it clear that the Biden administration has
no illusions regarding the Zelensky administration’s progress on the reform
front. Moreover, by tying the assessment of the government’s progress to IMF
tranches, the Biden administration has both given all concerned a clear way and
familiar way to measure the progress of reform, and put in place a mechanism to
prevent bilateral disagreements on reform from affecting other issues, such as
security and NATO accession.