Tillerson To Meet With Ukraine’s Poroshenko In Davos

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will travel on January 26 to Davos, Switzerland, where he will meet with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, among other leaders.

The U.S. State Department said in a statement on January 25 that Tillerson’s meeting will take place at 3:30 p.m.

World leaders, including President Donald Trump, are in Davos for the high-profile World Economic Forum.

Trump will speak before the assembled leaders at 2 p.m.

Tillerson will also meet with Rwandan President Paul Kagame, Swiss President Alain Berset, and Polish President Andrzej Duda while in Davos.

The United States has been a stalwart supporter of Ukraine since 2013 when a series of street protests over closer integration with Europe evolved into a major confrontation with President Viktor Yanukovych, culminating in his ouster in February 2014 and leading to a pro-Western government under Poroshenko.

The United States and the European Union have imposed an array of sanctions on Russia over its March 2014 seizure of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and its role in the war in eastern Ukraine.

In the coming days, the U.S. Treasury Department is due to release a report that is expected to name hundreds of Kremlin-connected insiders and business leaders who could later be hit with a fresh wave of U.S. sanctions.

The State Department late last year announced approval of "enhanced defensive capabilities" for Ukraine to defend itself against the separatists.

But Washington has also pushed Poroshenko to institute major governmental reforms and clean up the country’s endemic corruption.