Canada agrees on the steps to implement Ukraine’s peace initiative to end Russia’s invasion, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Jan. 3 after a call with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
“A substantive conversation with Justin Trudeau,” Zelensky
wrote on Twitter.
“Agreed on steps to implement the #PeaceFormula,” he added, along with thanking Canada for the “strong support” and mentioning the discussion touched upon strengthening his country’s defence capabilities.
A
readout of the call from the Prime Minister’s Office says Trudeau “expressed his hope that 2023 will bring a just and sustainable peace to the people of Ukraine.”
“He commended President Zelensky’s ongoing efforts toward this end, including his peace initiative, and reaffirmed Canada’s support for these endeavours.”
The readout adds that Trudeau told Zelensky that Canada was committed to supporting Ukraine with humanitarian, military, and financial assistance “as long as necessary, to safeguard their free, democratic, and secure future.”
Trudeau spoke with Zelensky while vacationing in Jamaica. The call took place after previous calls in
mid-December and
mid-November.
Latest Canadian measures to support Ukraine include the
provision of $115 million from Russian and Belarusian tariff revenues to repair Kyiv’s power grid, and the
disbursement of a $500 million loan collected from the sale of Ukrainian bonds.
Steps for Peace
The first of the three steps to implement Zelensky’s peace formula actually entails escalating the war to improve his leverage over Russia.
“The first [step] is a new force … Ukraine needs modern tanks - and I ask you to provide this defensive capability to us,” Zelensky
told the G7 online summit on Dec. 12.
He also pleaded for other types of weapons and ammunitions and said “the more effective we are with such weapons, the shorter the Russian aggression will be.”
Zelensky said the second step was a “new resilience” in the sectors of finances, energy, and social stability, and the third step is a “new diplomacy.”
“We feel the opportunity to use diplomacy to bring the liberation of all our people and all our territories closer,” he said.
This would take the form of a “Global Peace Formula Summit” where it would be determined how to implement the “Peace Formula,” Zelensky said.
The 10-point
formula was presented by Zelensky during his address at the G20 in mid-November and includes the restoration of Ukraine’s territorial integrity, the withdrawal of all Russian troops, and the establishment of a special tribunal to address war crimes.
Many of the demands are non-starters for Russia, which has rejected Ukraine’s peace formula.
“There can be no peace plan for Ukraine that does not take into account today’s realities regarding Russian territory, with the entry of four regions into Russia. Plans that do not take these realities into account cannot be peaceful,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov
said on Dec. 28.
Those regions refer to Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, which Russia annexed in September after referendums.
Russian President Vladimir Putin
said in late December he was ready to negotiate and blamed the other side for the absence of talks.
Meanwhile Russian officials
rejected on Dec. 27 the idea of holding in February the UN-mediated peace summit proposed by Ukraine.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba
said in late December that direct talks with Moscow would only take place on the condition that Russia face a war crimes tribunal.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
