Why Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is personal for Chrystia Freeland?
Canada’s Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland has been at the forefront of the government’s response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and for her, this crisis hits a little differently.
On Feb. 24, the day Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a full-scale military attack on the sovereign country, Canadians watching a government update about the situation got a hint of her personal heritage. “To my own Ukrainian-Canadian community, let me say this: Now is the time for us to be strong as we support our friends and family in Ukraine,” she said, later speaking in Ukrainian. Freeland’s maternal grandparents were both born in Ukraine and her mother helped draft the country’s constitution when it gained independence in 1991. Between 1988 and 1989, she studied at the University of Kyiv as an exchange student while earning a degree at Harvard University. There, she caught the attention of the Soviet Union’s KGB for her pro-democracy, pro-Ukrainian independence activism. In the 1990s, she launched her journalism career in Ukraine and later became Moscow’s bureau chief for the Financial Times. Along with other Canadian politicians and diplomats, Freeland is barred from entering Russia after the West applied sanctions for its annexation of Crimea.
When CTVNews.ca reached out to the minister’s office requesting background material and a statement about how her personal connections impact her work on the file, staff referenced comments she made on Thursday that the focus of Canadians should be centred on the Ukrainian people. “What we are seeing across Ukraine is a very, very determined people who have decided they’re willing to fight and die for democracy and for freedom. […] Seeing the Ukrainians stand up and say, ‘We may be smaller than you, you may have a fierce army that is bigger than ours, but we will not submit,’” she said during a press conference. “I think that is what has been transformative, and I’m very proud of them. I’m very inspired by the people of Ukraine, and I think the whole world is.ʺ
Retired major-general David Fraser, a former NATO commander, says he commends the efforts she’s made to distance her personal background with the situation at hand. “I got to say, she’s been pretty low key about this throughout the conflict so far and I credit her for – she could have come out very emotional, but she hasn’t. She has been more what we should expect from our deputy prime minister,” he said in an interview on CTVNews.ca.
“She’s not taken the soapbox and used it for, quite frankly, cheap political moves.” Moving in lockstep with its allies, Canada has levied a series of economic sanctions at Russian institutions and elites – including Putin – for the war in Ukraine. The government has also announced shipments of lethal and non-lethal military aid to Ukraine, millions of dollars in humanitarian aid, and has closed domestic airspace and waterways to Russia.Almost daily, Freeland has stood alongside her colleagues, unveiling incremental punitive measures as the situation escalates.Former Conservative defence and foreign affairs minister Peter MacKay said in a statement to CTVNews.ca that it’s evident the minister is “moving mountains” within her own department and “arguably others” to expedite the government’s support ...... Source: ctvnews.ca/