Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was in Canada on Thursday for talks with Prime Minister Mark Carney, his latest international trip aimed at locking in future support for Ukraine’s fight against Russia’s attack.
Ukraine is under pressure from Russia’s air war, which is using ballistic missiles and jet-powered drones to pierce defenses. Moscow’s attacks have targeted Ukraine’s power grid ahead of the upcoming winter as part of its campaign to demoralise civilians, Ukrainian officials say.
“The main focus will be on supporting Ukraine in protecting our skies and preparing for the winter,” Zelenskyy said of his Canada trip in a social media post. “We will discuss how to strengthen our resilience, support our people, and ensure that Ukraine has the capabilities it needs to defend itself.”
Canada and European countries are sending their own weaponry to Ukraine and are also buying American weapons for Kyiv under the so-called Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List, or PURL. The United States under President Donald Trump has stopped donating weapons to Ukraine.
Recent US efforts to stop the more than four years of fighting have delivered no significant breakthrough, although Washington-brokered talks between delegations from Moscow and Kyiv are expected to continue.
Zelenskyy’s arrival on Wednesday night in Calgary, Alberta, came the day after his flight from Moldova to Norway was delayed when authorities closed Moldova’s airspace because of a drone incursion.
The aerial drone battle between Russia and Ukraine has grown in scale since Russia’s all-out invasion in February 2022. Ukraine’s neighbours Romania and Moldova, and other European countries, have reported repeated drone incursions.
A Ukrainian sea drone wounded 28 people, including two children, on the waterfront in the Russian city of Sochi, local officials said. They said that beach infrastructure had been damaged but did not provide further details.
Russia’s Ministry of Defense said Thursday that its forces shot down 448 Ukrainian drones overnight. The drones were destroyed over 13 Russian regions, as well as the annexed Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea and the Black and Caspian seas, the ministry said.
Falling debris from a Ukrainian drone set fire to a home in Russia’s southwestern Voronezh region, killing one woman and wounding two other people, local Gov. Alexander Gusev said Thursday.
Ukrainian forces struck eight Russian infrastructure targets supporting the war effort over the past 24 hours, including a refinery in the Yamalo-Nenets region and a port in Dagestan, Zelenskyy said Thursday.
