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Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau paid an unexpected visit to kyiv, Ukraine on Saturday after Ukrainian troops engaged in heavy fighting against Russia on the southern front.
While a military band played, Justin Trudeau laid flowers near a wall displaying the faces of fallen soldiers ahead of Saturday night’s meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
He also visited an outdoor exhibition with destroyed military vehicles.
Trudeau received a gift from Oleksandr Polishchuk, Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister, which contained shrapnel from the rocket that fell in the Black Sea port city of Odessa.
Trudeau spoke with a group of Canadian-trained Ukrainian soldiers. Colonel Petro Ostapchuk, one of them, told reporters that engineers, young commanders and elite gunners had been trained in the troops.
“Meeting the Prime Minister is a great privilege,” he said.
Since the Russian invasion, Canada, home to a large part of the Ukrainian diaspora, has become one of kyiv’s main allies.
Ottawa passed sanctions against Moscow, provided significant military aid to Ukraine and trained more than 36,000 soldiers.
Justin Trudeau’s visit comes as Russia reportedly foiled Ukrainian attacks from the east and south, which some observers interpreted as the start of the full-scale retaliatory offensive that Kiev had been hoping for.
Ukraine has so far downplayed the significance of the attack.
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