An update on Biden's visit from our News Desk:
A lawmaker from Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s party says visiting U.S. Vice President Joe Biden has given assurances of Washington’s full support “in financial terms and beyond” for Ukraine.
Parliamentary deputy Svitlana Zalyschuk said Biden made the remarks during a December 7 meeting with members of parliament, Poroshenko’s administration, and civic society.
After that meeting, Biden met with Kyiv’s Mayor Vitali Klitschko and then went into private talks with Ukraine's president.
Biden was scheduled to meet later on December 7 with Ukraine’s Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk.
On December 8, Biden is scheduled to deliver a highly anticipated speech to Ukraine’s parliament.
It is Biden’s fourth visit to Kyiv since Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimea Peninsula in March 2014 and gave its backing to pro-Kremlin separatists in Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland.
Based on reporting by Reuters, AP, AFP, Interfax, and UNIAN
EU promises "very positive report" on Ukraine's visa-free ambitions
Brussels (dpa) -- The European Union is set to issue a "very positive report" on Ukraine's progress towards achieving visa-free access to the bloc, a top official said Monday, fuelling hopes in Kiev that it will be granted the long-sought advantage next week.
The offer to remove visa requirements for short-term visits to the bloc has been used as an incentive by the EU to encourage reforms in its eastern neighbours.
Moldova last year became the first of the six former Soviet states in the EU's Eastern Partnership programme to be granted visa-free access for its citizens to Europe's Schengen area for up to 90 days.
Ukraine hopes to be next in line.
"Ukraine has complied with everything [that was] promised so we can enable this visa-free regime," Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said on Monday after talks with EU officials in Brussels. "We hope our European partners will have a positive decision ... on December 15."
The European Commission, the EU's executive, is expected to issue reports on the visa liberalization progress made by Ukraine and Georgia on that day.
The bloc's commissioner for neighbourhood relations, Johannes Hahn, said he was "pretty sure that we will have a very positive report" for Ukraine.
"But the final outcome I can't and I don't want to predict," he told journalists in Brussels.
EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini warned that there are still efforts to be made by Ukraine, "notably on anti-corruption" work. But she also welcomed the "progress" made by Kiev so far.
"We know how much [visa liberalization] is important for all the Ukrainian people," she added.
The country has been holding visa liberalization talks with the EU for more than seven years.
Latest on the Biden visit:
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden has announced new financial aid of $190 million to help Ukraine implement reforms.
Speaking on December 7 after talks with President Petro Poroshenko in Kyiv, Biden urged the Ukrainian leadership to continue on the path of reforms and ramp up the fight against corruption.
“Ukraine is on the cusp -- what happens in the next year is likely to determine the fate of the country for generations," he said.
Biden also reiterated that the United States will never accept Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in March 2014.
Biden earlier met with members of parliament, and civic society, and Kyiv’s Mayor Vitali Klitschko.
It is Biden’s fourth visit to Kyiv since Russia annexed Crimea and gave its backing to Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.
WATCH: U.S. Vice President Joe Biden arrived in Kyiv for a two-day visit aimed at reaffirming Washington's support for Ukraine. After visiting a monument to protesters killed during the 2014 revolution, he held talks with President Petro Poroshenko. (AP video)
Meanwhile in eastern Ukraine:
A collection of stolen Dutch masterpieces dating from the 17th century have resurfaced in rebel-held eastern Ukraine 10 years after they had been stolen.
The Westfries Museum in the northwestern Dutch city of Hoorn said on December 7 that two men approached the Dutch Embassy in Kyiv in July offering to sell the 24 paintings back.
The men claimed they found the collection in a villa in eastern Ukraine and asked 5 million euros ($5.4 million) for it -- half its value when it went missing in 2005.
But an art expert, who has been hired as an intermediary, estimated the collection's current cost at maximum 500,000 euros ($545,000), noting the paintings' current poor shape.
Westfries Museum Director Ad Geerdink warned that the works were in danger of being sold on the black market after its own efforts to retrieve them failed.