July 13, 2015 PM Arseniy Yatsenyuk had interview with The New York Times

The prime minister of Ukraine reassured President Obama on Monday that his embattled government was making important progress in overhauling the country’s troubled economy and meeting the terms of a shaky cease-fire with Russia.

Arseniy P. Yatsenyuk, the prime minister, said he told Mr. Obama that he was tackling corruption in Ukraine’s crucial energy industry and working to increase wages. He also predicted that Parliament would vote this week for constitutional changes to devolve more power to local governments in eastern Ukraine, where pro-Russian separatists have waged a violent uprising.

In an interview, Mr. Yatsenyuk said Mr. Obama had pressed him on whether he would hold together his coalition with President Petro O. Poroshenko. “I said, ‘Mr. President, once Benjamin Franklin said: Hang together or hang separate,’ ” Mr. Yatsenyuk said. “That’s what we are doing with the Ukrainian president. We will stay united.” He pledged that Ukraine would not allow the coalition to fracture the way a previous pro-Western coalition did.

The meeting between Mr. Yatsenyuk and Mr. Obama was not on the president’s public schedule and was disclosed only afterward. In a statement issued on Monday evening, the White House said Mr. Obama had dropped by a White House meeting between Mr. Yatsenyuk and Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and had offered his “unwavering support” for Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression.

For more details see http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/07/14/world/europe/ukraine-premier-in-white-house-visit-hails-economic-progress.html