Ukraine ? Vice President Joe Biden assured a nervous Ukraine that its interests won’t be sacrificed as the United States tries to mend ties with Moscow.

Visiting Kiev two weeks after President Barack Obama attended a Moscow summit, Biden said Russia can claim no “sphere of influence” in its backyard. The U.S. vice president travels next to another former Soviet republic, Georgia, which lost a five-day war with Russia last year over separatist provinces that Moscow insists are independent states.

Russia has responded angrily to efforts by the pro-Western leaders of Ukraine and Georgia to distance their countries from Moscow and seek NATO membership.