Poroshenko in Washington for McCain’s funeral, meetings

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko was in the United States this
weekend, Unian reports. Most notably, he attended the funeral of Senator John
McCain, and, according to former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha
Power, participated in a parting shot at Russia by the Senator. In a tweet, she
wrote that it was “Surely no coincidence that John McCain … invited Ukraine’s
President Poroshenko & seared [sic] him beside” NATO head Jens Stoltenberg.
Power herself stood next to Poroshenko as well.

President Poroshenko
also met with U.S. Special Representative Kurt Volker to discuss further
enhancements to the defensive capability of Ukraine’s army. Volker will visit
Ukraine in September.

James Hydzik: Given the current lows in Ukraine – Russia and U.S.
– Russia relations, this visit will bring little change to the status quo.
Moreover, it will reinforce Ukraine’s position in the minds of the Russia hawks
in American political circles despite the occasional bad press coming as a
result of the investigations into primarily (but not completely) Yanukovych-era
events related to Paul Manafort, among others. However, given the other events
of the past few days (see other political news today), it will only encourage
Russia’s tendency toward an “asymmetric response” – which would have probably
happened anyway given the severity of the events.