WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Joe Biden is heading back to Ukraine to attend the inauguration of the embattled nation’s new president.
The White House says Biden will be in Kiev on Saturday for President-elect Petro Poroshenko’s inauguration and to meet with Ukrainian leaders.
Biden’s visit comes at a chaotic moment for Ukraine. Hopes that Poroshenko’s election would help resolve the conflict between the government and pro-Russian separatists has been tempered by deadly clashes between the two sides in eastern Ukraine in recent weeks.
Biden was last in Ukraine in April, when he mounted a show of support for the government in Kiev. Biden has been heavily involved in the U.S. response to the Ukraine crisis and in reassuring anxious NATO allies of the U.S. commitment to their defense.
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