Canada’s Trudeau announces new weapons for Ukraine in visit to Kyiv

KYIV (Reuters) – Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced new weapons and equipment for Ukraine on Sunday after an unannounced visit to Kyiv, the capital.

Trudeau, addressing a news conference after talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, also said Canada was imposing new sanctions on Russian individuals and entities in connection with Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

“Today, I’m announcing more military assistance, drone cameras, satellite imagery, small arms, ammunition and other support, including funding for demining operations,” Trudeau said.

“And we’re bringing forward new sanctions on 40 Russian individuals and five entities, oligarchs and close associates of the regime in the defence sector, all of them complicit in Putin’s war,” in a reference to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Trudeau visited the town of Irpin outside Kyiv, the focal point of fierce battles between Ukrainian and Russian troops before the Russians withdrew late in March.

He said Canada was reopening its embassy in the Ukrainian capital.

Canada was also providing $25 million to the U.N.’s World Food Programme as part of efforts to uphold food security and would remove trade tariffs on all Ukrainian imports to Canada for next year.

(Reporting by Tom Balmforth; Editing by Ron Popeski and Leslie Adler)