Poroshenko to meet with Trump this month

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko will meet with U.S. President Donald Trump in June, before the G20 summit in early in July in Germany, the Ukrainian foreign minister confirmed on June 14, as reported by the dt.ua news site. Both sides are currently working on the date and content of the meeting. The agenda currently includes Russia’s fulfillment of the Minsk Accords, the situation in Crimea, Russian restrictions to OSCE access, U.S. support for Ukrainian reforms and bilateral cooperation in security and defense.

“We will work to agree upon a logic to our cooperation in pressuring Russia,” Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin said, adding they will also discuss whether the U.S. will work in parallel with the Normandy Format or be included at certain stages.

Zenon Zawada: It’s positive that Trump is ready to meet with Poroshenko, even more so ahead of the July G20 summit at which Russian President Putin will be present. So far U.S. foreign policy has not changed towards Ukraine and we can expect the Trump administration will keep pressure on the Putin administration and cooperate with the Ukrainian government in doing so.

We don’t expect any major policy changes towards the armed conflict in Donbas from any side, given that the current paradigm of low-level warfare is an adequate compromise for all the players involved. However, we expect Putin to intensify the conflict should he sense rising threats to his power, such as deteriorating economic conditions.