Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is on a surprise visit to Kyiv, and has met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as the Ukrainian military stepped up its long-anticipated counteroffensive to drive the Russian army out of occupied eastern and southern regions of the battered country.
Trudeau, accompanied by Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, arrived in the capital on Saturday as Zelenskyy’s government struggles to assess the damage and mount further downstream evacuations following the destruction of the giant Nova Kakhovka dam.
Both Kyiv and Moscow blame each other for the collapse, which U.S. intelligence agencies and a Norwegian research foundation — citing seismic data — said on Friday was caused by some kind of explosion.
Trudeau’s trip to Ukraine was planned under a strict news blackout.
The visit has taken Trudeau away from Ottawa as the political crisis over alleged Chinese foreign interference in the last two federal elections took a dramatic turn with the abrupt resignation of special rapporteur and former governor general David Johnston.
It also came after a week of intense efforts to squelch raging wildfires in Quebec and elsewhere that have reduced air quality for tens of millions of people in Canada and the U.S.
In Kyiv, Trudeau started his visit by attending a sombre wreath-laying at the Wall of Remembrance, a unique, deeply personal collection of photos and inscriptions marking those who’ve fallen in the Russian-Ukrainian war. On his way to the wall, Trudeau at one point crouched down low to look inside one of the frames of burnt-out Russian tanks and
military vehicles that fill a public square.
Moments before the wreath-laying ceremony, a military funeral procession passed by. A coffin and mourners dressed head to toe in black marched into St. Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery in central Kyiv to the mournful sound of bugles.
It was a stark reminder that this is a country at war.
‘We see your heroism’: Zelenskyy to soldiers
This is the second time Trudeau has made an unannounced visit to Ukraine since Russia began its large-scale invasion in February 2022.
In his last visit just over a year ago, he reopened the Canadian Embassy in Kyiv and met Zelenskyy in person for the first time since the war began. Trudeau and Zelenskyy also met last month on the margins of the G7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan, where the president continued his campaign to shore up support among Western allies for the defence of his country.
Before the Canadian delegation’s arrival Saturday, Zelenskyy briefed the prime ministers of Japan and the Netherlands on the rescue operations in the south and what kind of humanitarian assistance is needed.
They also spoke about further defence co-operation, Zelenskyy said in his nighttime address to his people.
He made no direct reference to the counteroffensive, which many Western intelligence agencies and media have said is underway.
Zelenskyy addressed his comments to the soldiers.
“We see your heroism, and we are grateful to you for every minute of your life — a life that is truly the life of Ukraine,” he said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin appears convinced the counteroffensive is underway. He made reference to it Friday in a video published on his Telegram channel.
“We can definitely state that this Ukrainian offensive has begun,” he said.
Heightened fighting could go in a ‘few directions’
Oleksandr Musiienko, head of the Center for Military and Legal Studies in Kyiv, said he believes the intense fighting of the last week signals the “beginning” of the long-awaited drive.
Fierce combat is escalating in the east and south as Ukrainian forces move into more offensive positions. Ukraine hasn’t confirmed if its expected counteroffensive against Russian forces has officially begun, but officials admit the country will need more Western military aid to win the war.
What the world is witnessing, he said, are probing attacks looking for weaknesses in the Russian lines. He insisted the decisive blows are yet to come.
“I suppose it could [go in a] few directions — two or three directions,” said Musiienko, an adviser to the former defence minister.
The destruction of the hydroelectric dam and the resulting flooding along the Dnipro River gave the Russians a modicum of military relief in the southern region near Kherson, where the river has become wider and not as easily a passage for Ukrainian forces, he said.
Musiienko said it has allowed Moscow to move troops that would have been normally guarding the region and move them elsewhere.
“They did it just to move their forces. They just took them from the left bank of [the city of] Kherson and just moved the Zaporizhia direction and protected the defence lines there.”
