Trudeau in Ukraine, promises armoured vehicles and $5B in aid

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is in Kyiv today and promised another 25 light armoured vehicles and $5 billion dollars in aid to Ukraine using funds from seized Russian assets.

He also said that he is not ruling out sending Canadian troops to Ukraine as part of a possible peace deal.

The PM made the announcements at a peace and security summit in the capital where he was with 12 European leaders to mark the third anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of the country.

When asked whether Canada is willing to send troops to help maintain security in Ukraine, Trudeau said the country will be involved in some way and that “everything is on the table.”

He also repeated his calls for Kyiv to have a direct role in negotiations for a possible end to the war.

Trudeau pushed back on the Kremlin’s narrative, recently echoed by U.S. President Donald Trump, that Ukraine bore responsibility for igniting the conflict.

President Trump called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a “dictator” in a social media post last week, accused him of refusing to have elections and repeated false claims about the war in Ukraine.

Trudeau said at the meeting, “This is not a conflict Ukraine wanted, provoked or asked for in any way.”

– With files from the Canadian Press.

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