Canada has been one in all Kyiv’s key allies because the Russian invasion.

Kyiv, Ukraine:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky mentioned Saturday {that a} counteroffensive was underway as Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visited Kyiv and criticised Russia over flooding from the breached Kakhovka dam.

“Counteroffensive and defensive actions are taking place in Ukraine: at which stage I will not talk in detail,” Zelensky mentioned at a joint press convention 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 assaults within the east and south.

“It’s interesting what Putin said about our counteroffensive. It is important that Russia always feels this: that they do not have long left, in my opinion,” Zelensky mentioned.

He added that he was in each day contact with navy commanders, together with armed forces chief Valery Zaluzhny, and “everyone is positive now — tell that to Putin!”

Trudeau, 51, and Zelensky, 45, hugged one another and used one another’s first names because the Canadian chief made his second unannounced go to to Kyiv since full-scale warfare broke out in February final 12 months.

Canada, which hosts a lot of Ukrainian expatriates, has been one in all Kyiv’s key allies because the Russian invasion.

It has supplied Ukraine with important navy help, educated greater than 36,000 troopers and adopted sanctions towards Moscow.

– ‘Direct consequence’ –

Trudeau denounced Russia’s position within the destruction of the Russian-controlled Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine on Tuesday.

The flooding from the breached dam has pressured 1000’s to flee their properties and sparked fears of humanitarian and environmental disasters.

Ukraine accuses Russia of blowing up the dam, whereas Moscow says Kyiv fired on it.

In his each day tackle, Zelenksy condemned the “shameful indifference” from the worldwide group to the fallout of the dam’s destruction, together with the failure to “form and send a rescue mission to the occupied territory” or “come out with clear and strong statements condemning this latest Russian war crime.”

He urged worldwide organisations to return to assistance from these in Russian-occupied territories.

Pledging 10 million Canadian {dollars} (US $7.5 million) in new funding for flood reduction, Trudeau mentioned the dam’s destruction was the “direct consequence” of Russia’s invasion.

“There is absolutely no doubt in our minds that the destruction of the dam was a direct consequence of Russia’s decision to invade a peaceful neighbour,” Trudeau mentioned, including Russia “will be held to account” for its actions in Ukraine.

– Pilot coaching –

The Canadian chief mentioned he would supply 500 million Canadian {dollars} in new funding for navy help to Ukraine.

He additionally pledged Canada could be a part of the multinational efforts to coach Ukraine’s fighter pilots.

Earlier within the day Trudeau positioned flowers by a wall of remembrance displaying the faces of troopers killed in fight whereas a navy orchestra performed.

He additionally visited an open-air exhibition that includes destroyed Russian navy automobiles.

Ukrainian Deputy Defence Minister Oleksandr Polishchuk handed Trudeau a field that he mentioned held shrapnel from a rocket that fell on the Black Sea port metropolis of Odesa.

He mentioned the present was supposed to remind Trudeau of Ukraine’s affected by Russian strikes.

– Iran should ‘finish help’ for Russia –

Three individuals have been killed early Saturday in a fireplace sparked by particles from shot-down Russian drones within the Odesa area.

French President Emmanuel Macron urged his Iranian counterpart Ebrahim Raisi to “immediately end” Tehran’s help for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which includes supplying Moscow with assault drones, the Elysee mentioned.

Macron in a phone name underlined the intense “security and humanitarian consequences” of Iran’s drone deliveries “and urged Tehran to immediately end the support it thus gives to Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine”, mentioned an announcement.

The name got here a day after White House nationwide safety spokesman John Kirby mentioned Russia was receiving supplies from Iran to construct a drone manufacturing unit on its territory that “could be fully operational early next year”.

The United States has mentioned that Russia has obtained a whole lot of Iranian assault drones to assault Kyiv and “terrorise” Ukrainians, a cost denied by Tehran.

According to US knowledge, the drones are in-built Iran, shipped throughout the Caspian Sea “and then used operationally by Russian forces against Ukraine”, Kirby mentioned.

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