Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau issued an unequivocal defense of Ukraine on Wednesday amid an escalating feud between the leader of the war-torn country and President Trump.
In video remarks posted to social media, Trudeau made clear that “Canada and our allies” are united in support of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and against Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Canada and our allies are unequivocal on standing up against Vladimir Putin’s illegal, immoral, unjust violations of the international order,” Trudeau said in his remarks.
“I’m looking forward to sitting down with my European partners in a couple of hours to talk about how we will continue to stand, unequivocally, in defense of Ukraine, but also in defense of the rules that keep us all safe,” he continued.
Trudeau fiercely defended the “rules-based order” that he said has kept the world safe for the last near-century.
“Ukrainians have been fighting and dying not just to protect their sovereignty, their territorial integrity,” Trudeau said. “They’re also fighting to protect the rules-based order that keeps us all safe around the world and has for close to 80 years now.”
“This period of peace, stability, prosperity for the world happens because we had rules around borders, around not invading your neighbors, that Russia chose deliberately to violate a number of years ago,” he added.
Trudeau posted the video, writing, “Canada will always stand up for Ukraine.”
The unflinching show of support for Ukraine comes amid Trump’s escalating war of words with Zelensky in recent days and as the Trump administration seeks to negotiate an end to the war between Russia and Ukraine.
Three senior Trump administration officials met on Tuesday with their Russian counterparts in Saudi Arabia to discuss mending relations between the two powers and ending the war in Ukraine. The meeting, which included neither Ukrainian nor European representatives, marked a dramatic shift in U.S.-Russia relations and drew a rebuke from Zelensky.
Trump responded Tuesday with unfounded allegations that Zelensky “started” the war, with the Ukrainian leader responding Wednesday that the U.S. president was living in a “web of disinformation.”
Trump took to Truth Social hours later, calling the Ukrainian president a “dictator without elections” who was doing a “terrible job.”
