'Ukraine Is Essentially Stable' – Carl Bildt

What You Need To Know:

✅“Even if we wish reforms to go faster, Ukraine is essentially stable;”

✅ Ukraine was on the verge of both financial and security collapse in 2014-2015;

✅ With growing concern from Ukrainians about western foreign policy towards their country, Bildt says that Russian foreign policy should be a priority as there is an uncertainty of what Moscow really wants;

✅ “I don’t see any sign of a Russian move at this time.”

“Even if we wish reforms to go faster, Ukraine is essentially stable,” says Carl Bildt, the former Prime Minister of Sweden.  On a recent visit to Ukraine at the YES Conference, Bildt reminded Hromadske that Ukraine was on the verge of both financial and security collapse in 2014-2015, and that the Yatsenyuk government did more than they are given credit for in stabilizing the situation.

With growing concern from Ukrainians about western foreign policy towards their country, Bildt says that Russian foreign policy should be a priority as there is an uncertainty of what Moscow really wants.    He says that in the West, policy discussions become acute when “they see Moscow move on the basic security issues in Donbas.”

“I don’t see any sign of a Russian move at this time,” he adds.

Hromadske’s Nataliya Gumenyuk spoke to Carl Bildt, Former Swedish Prime Minister (1991-1994) and Former Swedish Minister of Foreign Affairs (2006-2014) at the YES Conference in September 2016 in Kyiv.