Mark Carney praises Donald Trump’s Ukraine peace push as he visits Kyiv

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Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney has praised Donald Trump’s push for peace in Ukraine as he visited Kyiv to mark the country’s independence day alongside western allies.

“I applaud the leadership of the transformative US President Donald Trump in creating the possibilities for peace,” said Carney, who has previously been at odds with Trump over issues including tariffs and Trump’s stated desire to annex Canada.

In a later press conference, Carney said he “did not exclude” the possibility of deploying Canadian troops in Ukraine as part of a reassurance force that would follow a ceasefire.

“There’s the possibility, and I don’t exclude anything, [to have] forces from the coalition of [the] willing, including from Canada, here in Ukraine,” he said.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy sought to emphasise western support at the celebrations in Kyiv on Sunday that were also attended by the US special envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg.

They came after Trump met Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and Zelenskyy separately this month in an effort to broker a peace deal, a drive that appears to have reached an impasse because of Putin’s hardline stance.

Speaking on the square facing the thousand-year-old St Sophia Cathedral in central Kyiv, Zelenskyy said: “All together, Ukraine and our partners are working to pressure Russia towards peace.

“It is possible, and we’re working all together so that the end of this war means a guaranteed security for Ukraine.”

Amid Trump’s drive for peace talks, Ukraine has pushed for a meeting between Zelenskyy and Putin while trying to secure security guarantees from Kyiv’s western allies.

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said this week that no meeting between the two presidents would be held until Kyiv agreed to Moscow’s maximalist positions.

Putin will travel to China at the end of the week, Russian state media reported on Sunday, to attend a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, a China-led regional trade and security group, in Tianjin on August 31.

The US has also voiced its readiness to take part in security guarantees for Ukraine as part of a peace deal, without yet specifying the possible contours of such a commitment. Moscow has said that Russia and Beijing must be included in any such guarantees, an idea swiftly rejected by Zelenskyy.

Carney said on Sunday that C$1bn (US$721mn) of C$2bn pledged to Ukraine by Canada in June would be dedicated to supporting the Ukrainian military with drones, armoured vehicles and ammunition, to be delivered from next month.

“We are experiencing a crucial moment in this fierce struggle today. The support of the international community must be strengthened,” he said.

Swedish defence minister Pål Jonson announced in Kyiv the signing of an agreement on the joint production in Sweden of military equipment with Ukraine.

Attacks have continued over the weekend, with Ukraine’s air force on Sunday reporting that 72 Russian drones were launched across the country overnight.

Authorities in Kramatorsk, de facto capital of the Ukrainian-held Donetsk region, said Russian forces had launched 41 guided bombs in areas in and near the city on Friday evening, damaging 46 houses and injuring three people.

Russian authorities on Sunday reported intercepting a drone over a nuclear power plant in the Kursk region, about 80km from the border with Ukraine, in an uncommon instance of Kyiv’s forces attacking a nuclear site.

“The device detonated when it fell, causing damage to the auxiliary transformer,” the plant’s press service said.

The explosion caused a small fire that has since been put out, it added, and no injuries or elevated radiation levels were reported. However, the plant was forced to reduce its only operating unit to run at 50 per cent capacity.

Ukraine’s drones also targeted Russia’s energy export infrastructure overnight. Near St Petersburg, drone strikes caused a large fire at a terminal of Russia’s Novatek gas company in the Ust-Luga port on the Baltic Sea.

Recent Ukrainian attacks on refineries have caused petrol shortages and pushed up prices for the fuel to record highs. Drone attacks have also caused chaos in Russia’s airline industry.

Sunday’s attack led to the cancellation of about 90 flights out of St Petersburg’s Pulkovo international airport, with the facility restricted for nearly 20 hours.