Canada offers air defense support for Ukraine as Zelenskyy visits

Canada offered support on Thursday to boost Ukraine’s air defenses and help replenish its drone stocks, as the countries pledged to deepen their alliance during a visit by Volodymyr Zelenskyy.Mark Carney hosted the president of Ukraine in Calgary in the western province of Alberta, where the Canadian prime minister grew up among a large community of people with Ukrainian heritage.“Canada will always be with you,” Carney assured Zelenskyy.The leaders signed an agreement to work toward a “hundred-year partnership”.That deal, to be negotiated over the coming months, aims to codify cooperation in a range of areas, including defense, critical minerals and energy.“Our two nations have been connected since 1893,” Carney said, referring to a wave of Ukrainians who migrated to the new Canadian nation.In Alberta, there are an estimated 350,000 Canadians of Ukrainian descent.“Ukrainians helped build Canada and Canadians will help rebuild Ukraine,” Carney said.The support announced on Thursday includes C$350m (US$253m) provided through the United States’ Joint Ukraine Multinational Program – Services, Training and Articles Rapid Timeline (Jumpstart) program.Zelenskyy has emphasized the need for increased air defense as Russia ramps up ballistic missile attacks.Carney said Canada was also offering C$450m in loan guarantees to enhance the Ukrainian energy supply.The funds will help repair damaged infrastructure, increase storage capacity and improve power supply to hospitals.Carney said the goal of the energy support was “to help Ukrainians get through the winter”, a difficult period when the country endures rolling blackouts amid often frigid temperatures.Canada is moving aggressively to increase its own drone stocks, Carney said, announcing a deal that will see 30% of new Canadian production head to Ukraine.Zelenskyy told reporters that “these drones will go to Ukraine immediately to [the] battlefield, immediately to our people, our soldiers … to save our children, our families first of all.”Asked about potential negotiations to ease the fighting, Zelenskyy said he did not anticipate any substantive talks during Russia’s ongoing election period.But he said he planned to meet Donald Trump in New York City in late September, probably on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, with Washington bidding to revive long-stalled talks to end the war.“But at the end of September, we will have an opportunity to meet, I think, with the American team in New York,” Zelenskyy said.“And I think that … I can be more open after the New York meeting with President Trump.”After the Calgary meeting, Zelenskyy was headed to Banff, a stunning Canadian national park, where he will address a cabinet retreat for Carney’s liberal government.He then heads to Canada’s largest city, Toronto, and North Bay in northern Ontario.