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 issues, front-line developments, and politics. 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 in the Media Development Foundation’s “25 under 25: Young and Bold” 2023 list of emerging media makers in Ukraine.
Ukraine's Air Force said it shot down 11 Shahed-type drones overnight as Russia launched a wave of 35 attack drones, including decoy drones, primarily targeting eastern frontline regions. Six additional decoys were jammed or lost.
The package targets 105 vessels of Russia's shadow fleet, the Russian banking system, Nord Stream pipelines, and lowers the price cap on Russian crude oil.
The head of Ukraine's Poltava Mining faces criminal charges for allegedly evading over Hr 1.7 billion ($41 million) in corporate taxes through fraudulent export pricing, the Ukraine Economic Security Bureau announced in a press release on July 18.
The fatalities included a man and a woman. All of the 11 injured victims have been hospitalized, one of whom — a 29-year-old woman — is in serious condition, Governor Serhii Lysak reported.
"European countries will have to fund it," Thordis Gylfadottir, an envoy of the Council of Europe, told Politico. "We cannot stop tracking them and then just re-track them (abducted children) in the months ahead."
The source called Igor Nesterov a war criminal and a member of Russia's infamous Wagner company, a mercenary group that was deployed in some of the most brutal battles in Ukraine.
Allied capabilities now allow NATO to "take that (Kaliningrad) down from the ground" faster than ever before, U.S. Army Europe and Africa commander General Chris Donahue said.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said four drones were shot down on approach to the capital, with blasts heard near Zvenigorod, Istra, and Zelenograd — suburban districts and satellite towns located to the west and northwest of central Moscow.
"Fighters from the 31st Separate Mechanized Brigade and the 505th Separate Marine Battalion have raised their battle flags in the settlements of Voskresenka and Yalta in Donetsk Oblast," the 20th Corps said in a statement on social media.
Russian forces launched a series of overnight attacks across Ukraine on July 18, killing one person and injuring at least five others, according to local officials.
"We reject Hungary's manipulations, and we will not tolerate such disrespect for our military. Ukraine reserves the right to take appropriate action in response," Foreign Minister Adrii Sybiha.
The Kyiv Independent news desk
