July 2016

Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has arrived in Kiev where he will sign a free trade deal with the Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. Mr Trudeau has just committed troops to a Nato mission in Latvia, in response to Russia's actions in Ukraine - Canada is seen as both a pivotal and personal ally for Ukraine.

Canadians have sent money to the families of dead Ukrainian soldiers, like 42-year-old Andriy Borodyanyk, who was a biology teacher and a single parent before he was killed by a mortar, fired by Russian-backed separatists, in August 2015.

When the war broke out in the east of Ukraine in the spring of 2014, Canadian NGOs rallied to provide winter boots and uniforms for a skeletal Ukrainian military, which had suffered years of post-Soviet neglect.

Since then the Friends of Ukraine Defence Forces Fund, a Toronto-based NGO, has raised two million Canadian dollars ($1.5m; £1.2m). More recently the money has been used to buy body armour, vehicles, water purification systems and medical kits for Ukrainian soldiers.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36739074

June 2020

TORONTO (AP) — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Monday that Russia will not be included in the Group of 7 nations, disagreeing with U.S. President Donald Trump, who said he plans to invite Russia.

Trudeau noted Russia was excluded from the group after it annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in 2014.

“Its continued disrespect and flaunting of international rules and norms is why it remains outside of the G7 and why it will continue to remain out,” Trudeau said.

Trump said Saturday that he will postpone until the fall a meeting of Group of 7 nations he had planned to hold this month at the White House despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. And he said he plans to invite Russia, Australia, South Korea and India, advocating for the group’s expansion.

The G7 members are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States. The group’s presidency rotates annually among member countries. Trump has repeatedly advocated for expanding the group to again include Russia, prompting opposition from some members.

The U.S. House of Representatives also passed a bipartisan resolution in December 2019 that supported Russia’s previous expulsion from the annual gathering. Russia had been included in the gathering of the world’s most advanced economies since 1997, but was suspended in 2014 following its invasion of Ukraine and annexation of Crimea.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/canadas-trudeau-says-russia-wont-be-included-in-the-g7