Ukraine announces counteroffensive as Canada pledges new aid

Trudeau uses unannounced visit to offer $375m in military assistance and help training fighter pilots

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met in Kyiv on Saturday. EPA

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy broke his silence on Ukraine’s counter-offensive and received fresh pledges of military aid from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the weekend.

Mr Zelenskyy was commenting after Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed that Kyiv's operation was already failing. Russia has reported thwarting Ukrainian attacks in the east and south.

“Counteroffensive and defensive actions are taking place in Ukraine: at which stage I will not talk in detail,” Zelenskyy said on Saturday.

“It's interesting what Putin said about our counteroffensive. It is important that Russia always feels this: that they do not have long left, in my opinion.”

He added that he was in daily touch with military commanders, including armed forces chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi, and “everyone is positive now – tell that to Putin.”

The long-expected counteroffensive with Nato-equipped brigades was believed to have begun early last week, despite Ukraine's strict silence.

A leading military analyst told The National on Friday that the counteroffensive had made advances but also suffered setbacks in its early phases.

Residents wait for a barge to evacuate their cows from the village of Afanasiivka, partly flooded after the Kakhovka dam breach. Reuters

British Gen Sir Richard Barrons said the “jury’s still out” on how successful Ukrainian forces will be fighting high-intensity warfare.

Kyiv's forces conducted counteroffensive operations in at least four front-line areas at the weekend, according to Washington-based think tank the Institute for the Study of War.

“Russian sources claimed that Ukrainian forces have tactical advantages in conducting assaults at night due to western-provided equipment with superior night optics systems,” said the institute.

Troops advanced up to 1.4km in different areas of the Bakhmut front on Saturday, a Ukrainian army representative said. The Russian Ministry of Defence claimed that troops repelled Ukrainian attacks south-west and north-west of Bakhmut.

On Saturday, Mr Trudeau made his second unannounced visit to Kyiv since the war began last year.

Canada, which hosts a large Ukrainian diaspora, has been one of Kyiv's key allies since the Russian invasion, providing significant military aid, training more than 36,000 soldiers and adopting sanctions against Moscow.

On this visit, Mr Trudeau said he would provide 500 million Canadian dollars ($375 million) in fresh military assistance to Kyiv and said his country would be part of the multinational effort to train Ukraine's fighter pilots.

Mr Trudeau also urged international organisations to come to the aid of those in Russian-occupied territories after flooding from the breached Kakhovka dam forced thousands to flee their homes and sparked fears of humanitarian and environmental disasters.

Ukraine accused Russia of blowing up the dam on Tuesday, while Moscow says Kyiv was responsible.

When asked why he stopped short of blaming Russia for the dam collapse, Mr Trudeau said: “I know there are investigators and there are a lot of questions and intelligence being analysed on what exactly happened to have this dam collapse.

“But there is no doubt in my mind that absent Russia's invasion of last February, that dam would still be standing today.”

Pledging 10 million Canadian dollars in flood relief, Mr Trudeau also said Russia “will be held to account” for its actions in Ukraine.

Earlier in the day, Mr Trudeau placed flowers by a wall of remembrance displaying photos of soldiers killed in combat.

Ukrainian Deputy Defence Minister Oleksandr Polishchuk handed Mr Trudeau a box that he said held shrapnel from a rocket that fell on the Black Sea port city of Odesa.

He said the gift was intended to remind Mr Trudeau of Ukraine's suffering from Russian strikes.

Three people were killed early Saturday in a fire sparked by debris from shot-down Russian drones in the Odesa region, AFP reported.

French President Emmanuel Macron urged Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi to “immediately end” Tehran's support for Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which involves supplying Moscow with attack drones.

Mr Macron in a phone call underlined the serious “security and humanitarian consequences” of Iran's drone deliveries “and urged Tehran to immediately end the support it thus gives to Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine”.

The call came a day after White House national security spokesman John Kirby said Russia was receiving material from Iran to build a drone factory that “could be fully operational early next year”.

The US says Russia has received hundreds of Iranian attack drones to hit Kyiv and “terrorise” Ukrainians, a charge denied by Tehran.

With reporting from agencies.