Laskavo Prosimo! Poroshenko Invites US Vice President Pence to Visit Ukraine

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko invited US Vice President Michael Pence to pay a state visit to Ukraine, presidential spokesman Svyatoslav Tsegolko said after their meeting in Munich.

KIEV (Sputnik) — Pence and Poroshenko held a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference in Germany. The Ukrainian president said Pence reaffirmed US support of Kiev and named Crimea’s return a priority for the US administration in its relations with Ukraine.

"The president of Ukraine has invited the US vice president to come to Ukraine with a visit," Tsegolko announced on social media.

Also on Saturday, Poroshenko held a meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. During the meeting within the framework of the MSC the sides agreed to intensify efforts within framework of NATO's trust funds established to support Kiev.

The conflict in eastern Ukraine began in April 2014 as a local counter-reaction to the West-sponsored Maidan coup in Kiev that had toppled legitimate President Viktor Yanukovych in February. Residents of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions held independence referendums and proclaimed the People's Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. Kiev has since been conducting a military operation, encountering stiff local resistance.

In February 2015, Kiev forces and Donbass independence supporters signed a peace agreement in the Belarusian capital of Minsk. The deal stipulates a full ceasefire, weapons withdrawal from the line of contact in Donbass, as well as constitutional reforms that would give a special status to the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics. Since then, the ceasefire regime has been regularly violated, with both sides accusing each other of multiple breaches, undermining the terms of the accord.