Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Canada's Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland (R) visit an exhibition of destroyed vehicles at Saint Michael's Square in Kyiv on June 10, 2023, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Valentyn Ogirenko/AFP via Getty Images)
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made a surprise visit to Kyiv on June 10, where he paid respect to fallen Ukrainian soldiers and laid a wreath at a memorial site at St. Michael's Cathedral.
Trudeau's visit comes as Ukraine suffers from more frequent airstrikes launched by Russian forces, including the wave of missile and drone attacks conducted in Poltava, Kharkiv, and Odesa oblasts overnight.
This is the Canadian leader's second visit to Ukraine during Russia's full-scale war. He last visited Kyiv in May 2022, where he met President Volodymyr Zelensky and reopened the Canadian Embassy in Ukraine amid war.
Zelensky and Trudeau last met at the G7 Hiroshima summit in May.
Asami Terajima is a reporter at the Kyiv Independent covering Ukrainian military affairs and front-line developments. She is the co-author of the weekly War Notes newsletter. She previously worked as a business reporter for the Kyiv Post, focusing on international trade, infrastructure, investment, and energy. Originally from Japan, Terajima moved to Ukraine during childhood and completed her bachelor's degree in Business Administration in the U.S. She is the winner of the Thomson Reuters Foundation's Kurt Schork Award in International Journalism 2023 (Local Reporter category) and the George Weidenfeld Prize, awarded as part of Germany's Axel Springer Prize 2023. She was also featured on the Media Development Foundation's 2023 "25 under 25: Young and Bold" list of emerging media makers in Ukraine. She is among the finalists for the U.K.'s One World Media Award 2026 in the Print category and the French Bayeux Calvados-Normandy award 2025 for war correspondents in the Young Reporter category.
The drills involve more than 1,500 military personnel, over 300 pieces of military equipment, and around 80 drones, according to the Collective Security Treaty Organization.
"The Kremlin must see that continued aggression will deepen its isolation. I ask you to take these proposals forward as an urgent priority," writes Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen in a letter seen by the Kyiv Independent.
Overnight on Oct. 12, Russian forces launched 121 Shahed-type attack drones, including 76 jet-powered versions, as well as Gerbera and Parodiya decoy drones, Ukraine's Air Force said.
Ukraine will halt its strikes against Russian refineries only if Moscow ceases its attacks against the Ukrainian power grid, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Oct. 12, signaling that a refinery-only truce makes little sense for a country with a single, badly damaged refinery.
Of the 77 sanctioned individuals, 74 ran as candidates in the sham elections, while the remaining three were newly elected members of Russia's central electoral commission.
"This is the single largest expansion of our sanctions list since Russia started its war," chief EU diplomat Kaja Kallas said, adding that more than half of the roughly 1600 listings "are connected to the production chain for ballistic missiles."
"Only when we increase our sanctions, when we show that we are serious, will we deny Russia the possibility to raise havoc in our capitals," Budrys said.
"Let's look at ourselves. The EU first took out two big Russian oligarchs, the biggest ever supporters of Putin's regime, from the sanctions," Latvia's Foreign Minister Baiba Braze said when asked to comment on a U.S. deal to buy Russian diesel.
Lawmakers from both major parties argued the move would undermine recently enacted sanctions against Russia, potentially provide Moscow with billions of dollars in revenue, and contradict Congress's efforts to pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine.
Inflicting heavy personnel losses has become a stated strategic objective of Ukraine. In January, then-Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said Ukraine aimed to "kill 50,000 Russians per month," arguing that losses on that scale could undermine Moscow's ability to sustain the war.
Among those killed were a 16-year-old boy, as well as a 19-year-old woman, and a 51-year-old woman, authorities said, in a strike that landed near a grocery store as well as several residential buildings.
The European Union is set to disburse approximately 3 billion euros ($4.8 billion) of defense support to Ukraine this week as part of the bloc's 90 billion euro support loan ($100 billion) for Kyiv, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Oct. 11.
Ukraine has no information about an energy ceasefire that U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Oct. 11, a senior Ukrainian official told the Kyiv Independent.
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