On Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reported “counter-offensive actions” by his army on the front line. However, he did not say whether this was the major attack that Kiev had been preparing for months.
Maintaining a deliberate vagueness about their military strategy against Russia, the Ukrainian authorities have for the past six days launched large-scale assaults, including with equipment supplied by the West, on its positions, particularly in southern Ukraine.
“Counteroffensive and defensive actions are taking place in Ukraine: at which stage I will not talk in detail,” Zelensky said at a joint press conference in Kyiv with Trudeau.
Zelensky commented after Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed that Kyiv’s long-expected counteroffensive was already failing.
Russia has reported thwarting Ukrainian attacks in the east and south that some observers have interpreted as the start of a large-scale counteroffensive.
Trudeau, 51, and Zelensky, 45, hugged each other and used each other’s first names as the Canadian leader made his second unannounced visit to Kyiv since full-scale war broke out in February last year. Canada, which hosts a large Ukrainian diaspora, has been one of Kyiv’s key allies since the Russian invasion. It has provided Ukraine with significant military aid, trained more than 36,000 soldiers and adopted sanctions against Moscow.
The Canadian leader said he would provide 500 million Canadian dollars in new funding for military assistance to Ukraine
Maïssa Ben Fares, with AFP
