Global Courant
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau makes a surprise visit to Kiev as the Ukrainian army ramps up its long-awaited counter-offensive to drive the Russian army out of the battered country’s occupied eastern and southern regions.
Trudeau, accompanied by Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, arrived in the capital on Saturday as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s administration struggles to assess the damage and initiate further downstream evacuations following the destruction of the giant Nova Kakhovka dam.
Both Kiev and Moscow blame each other for the collapse, which U.S. intelligence agencies and a Norwegian research foundation say — citing seismic data — was caused by some sort of explosion on Friday.
Trudeau’s trip to Ukraine was scheduled under a strict news blackout. He will also meet Zelenskyy during his stay there.
The visit moved 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 contain raging wildfires in Quebec and elsewhere that have reduced air quality for tens of millions of people in Canada and the US.
In Kiev, Trudeau began his visit by attending a sombre wreath-laying ceremony at the Wall of Remembrance, a unique, deeply personal collection of photographs and inscriptions marking the fallen in the Russo-Ukrainian War.
Moments before Trudeau arrived for the ceremony, a military funeral procession passed. A coffin and mourners, clad from head to toe in black, marched into the golden-domed St. Michael’s Monastery in central Kiev to the mournful sound of bugles.
It was a clear reminder that this is a country at war.
Trudeau will lay a wreath at the memorial wall outside St. Michael’s Golden-Domed Cathedral in Kyiv on Saturday to begin his visit to Ukraine. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press)
“We see your heroism”: Zelenskyy to soldiers
This is Trudeau’s second unannounced visit to Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
On his last visit, just over a year ago, he reopened the Canadian embassy in Kiev and met Zelenskyy in person for the first time since the war began. Trudeau and Zelenskyy also met last month on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan, where the president continued his campaign to bolster support from Western allies for his country’s defense.
Before the arrival of the Canadian delegation on Saturday, Zelensky briefed the prime ministers of Japan and the Netherlands on the rescue operations in the south and what kind of humanitarian aid is needed.
They also discussed further defense cooperation, Zelenskyy said in his nightly speech to his people.
He was not referring directly to the counter-offensive, which many Western intelligence and media say is underway.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visits a city hospital with people suffering from flooding in Kherson on Thursday. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Service via AP)
Zelenskyy addressed his remarks to the soldiers.
“We see your heroism and we are grateful for every minute of your life – a life that is truly the life of Ukraine,” he said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin seems convinced that the counter-offensive is underway. He referred to it in a video published on his Telegram channel on Friday.
“We can say for sure that this Ukrainian offensive has begun,” he said.
Increased battles can go in ‘one-way’
Oleksandr Musiienko, head of the Center for Military and Legal Studies in Kyiv, said he believes the intense fighting over the past week is the “beginning” of the long-awaited advance.
LOOK | Fighting intensifies in eastern and southern Ukraine:
Fighting across Ukraine intensifies as rumors of a counter-offensive mount
Heavy fighting escalates in the east and south as Ukrainian forces take up more offensive positions. Ukraine has not confirmed whether the expected counter-offensive against Russian forces has officially begun, but officials admit the country needs more Western military aid to win the war.
What the world is witnessing, he said, are probing attacks seeking weak points in Russian lines. He emphasized that 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 defense minister.
The destruction of the hydroelectric dam and resulting flooding along the Dnipro River gave the Russians some military relief in the southern region near Kherson, where the river has widened and is not as easy a passage for Ukrainian troops, he said. he.
Musiienko said it has allowed Moscow to move troops that would normally be guarding the region and move them elsewhere.
“They only did it to move their troops. They just took them from the left bank of (the city of) Kherson and moved towards Zaporizhia and protected the defense lines there.”
Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Oleksandr Polishchuk, left, shows Trudeau, right, and Freeland some burnt-out Russian tanks in Kiev on Saturday. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press)
