LONDON — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is to meet with the leaders of the United Kingdom and the Netherlands today to discuss Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine.
Trudeau flew to London on Sunday before his scheduled meeting today in the U.K. capital with Prime Minister Boris Johnson. They will be joined by their Dutch counterpart, Mark Rutte.
In the following days, Trudeau will also be getting together with other leaders in Riga, Latvia, Berlin and Warsaw, Poland.
In addition, the prime minister’s busy agenda includes a meeting with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and a visit to the Latvian military base where hundreds of Canadian Forces personnel are contributing to Canada’s leadership in that country of NATO’s long-standing deterrence mission to bolster its eastern European flank against Russia.
Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly has been in Europe over the past few days in meetings with NATO and European Commission officials about ongoing efforts to sanction Russia.
International Development Minister Harjit Sajjan will also travel to Geneva and then join Trudeau in eastern Europe to meet with the United Nations and others for talks on Ukraine.
The British defence ministry said Sunday in an intelligence update that Russia’s tactics in Ukraine were comparable to their previous pummeling of cities in Chechnya in 1999 and Syria in 2016 with airstrikes and artillery, after Russian forces faced unexpected resistance. The intelligence report said the strength of Ukrainian fighters continues to surprise the Russians, and that the bombing of cities, including Kharkiv, Chernihiv and Mariupol represented an effort to break Ukrainian morale.
In a one-hour conversation on Sunday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to cease the fighting in an attempt to address humanitarian concerns and try to find a political solution.
The Kremlin said Putin replied that Russia’s military action in Ukraine could be halted "only if Kyiv ceases hostilities and fulfills the well-known demands of Russia."
With a third round of negotiations between Ukraine and Russia set for today, the Kremlin said Putin expressed his hope that Ukraine would fully consider "emerging realities."
It is not possible to know the exact number of people killed so far since the Feb. 24 invasion. The United Nations human rights office said 364 civilians have been confirmed killed, but the true number is likely much higher.
Russian and Ukrainian officials have not provided information on military causalities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 7, 2022.
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Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau waves as he boards a government plane before departing for Europe in Ottawa on March 6, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld
