Trudeau doesn’t ‘get it’ on Ukraine

Re: “Remembering Ukraine’s past and engaging with its future” (Opinion, July 19) I profoundly disagree with Alexandra Chyczij’s opinion piece on Justin Trudeau’s official trip to Ukraine, in which she stated that the prime minister “gets it, that he knows Ukrainians are today fighting and dying for the very same values that Canadians have always defended.”

The number of important historic sites listed in her article would be included in any leader’s travel itinerary, while the landmark Canada-Ukraine Free Trade Agreement — signed in Kyiv during Trudeau’s visit — had been in the works for a number of years and came as a surprise to no one. In fact, free trade negotiations concluded in July 2015.

During his visit to Ukraine, Trudeau not only dodged questions about the extension of Canada’s military training mission in western Ukraine, Operation Unifier, but also failed to initial a defence co-operation agreement with the Ukrainian military. The Liberal government also recently cancelled the supply of critical RADARSAT satellite imagery, further evidence of a shift in Canada-Ukraine relations since the last federal election.

Meanwhile, Foreign Affairs Minister Stéphane Dion has reopened dialogue on a number of files with his Russian counterpart, while former Liberal PM Jean Chrétien met with President Putin in one of his palaces on the outskirts of Moscow last year. These actions clearly do not match the government’s words on the Ukraine file, and appear to represent Canada’s growing appeasement of Russia under the Trudeau government.

I’d let Canadians judge if the new prime minister gets it on Ukraine. Denys Volkov (director of communications, Canada’s Election Observation Missions in Ukraine, 2014), Winnipeg