Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pushed U.S. President Donald Trump in a phone call Saturday to ensure that any peace deal for Ukraine offers security guarantees and prevents Russia from using military force to further expand its territorial reach.
Mr. Trudeau, who left Ottawa Sunday for a summit in Kyiv of world leaders on the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, also discussed Canada’s efforts to bolster its border measures to stop the flow of illegal migrants and fentanyl to the United States, according to a source with direct knowledge of the two leaders’ talks.
The Globe and Mail is not naming the source because they are not authorized to publicly discuss a private conversation.
The leaders of the Group of Seven industrialized countries – Canada, the U.S., Britain, Germany, France, Italy and Japan – will hold a video conference Monday on Ukraine, in addition to the summit in Kyiv that same day. It comes after Mr. Trump shocked the country and its allies by authorizing bilateral talks with Moscow aimed at ending the war in Ukraine.
Mr. Trudeau spoke to the President as the G7 chair.
The source said the 20-minute conversation was constructive and cordial and largely focused on Mr. Trump’s effort to end the war with Russia. The U.S. proposal would give Moscow control over some of the already conquered lands and cede billions of dollars of Ukrainian natural resources to the United States.
Kyiv has been cut out of the U.S.-Russian negotiations. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told a news conference Sunday that he was willing to step down if it meant peace, but only if his country was allowed membership in NATO. He has also said he will not accept any agreement negotiated between Washington and Moscow without Kyiv’s participation.
At his news conference, Mr. Zelensky said he would not sign a deal to turn over Ukraine’s critical minerals and other resources to the U.S. “I am not signing something that 10 generations of Ukrainians will have to repay,” he told reporters.
The Canadian source said the Prime Minister made the point that everyone wants to end the bloody war that has claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians and Russians. But Mr. Trudeau drove home the point that any peace deal should not be seen by Russian President Vladimir Putin as appeasement, the source said, because that would open the door for future land grabs in the Baltic states and Eastern Europe.
The source said the U.S. President didn’t agree with Mr. Trudeau’s comments but he also didn’t counter them.
In a White House readout of the conversation, the Trump administration said: “Prime Minister Trudeau echoed President Trump’s desire to see an end to the war and acknowledged that President Trump is the only world leader who can push through a just and lasting peace. President Trump reminded the Prime Minister that the war should never have started and would not have had he been President at the time.”
French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer head to Washington this week in an attempt to convince the President not to abandon Ukraine. The two leaders hope to persuade Mr. Trump to accept a European proposal to deploy “reassurance” troops to help guarantee Ukraine’s future security. It remains unclear whether Canada would be asked to join such a force.
On bilateral relations and Mr. Trump’s threat to hit Canada with hefty tariffs on March 4, the source said Mr. Trudeau emphasized recent Canadian border measures. Canada is spending $1.3-billion on new border measures, has named a fentanyl czar and declared seven transnational crime groups, including Mexican cartels, as terrorist organizations.
“Prime Minister Trudeau then informed President Trump that Canada has enforced a 90 percent reduction in fentanyl crossing the U.S. Northern Border, and that the Canadian Border Czar would be in the United States next week,” the White House readout said.
In the Canadian readout, the Prime Minister’s Office said: “The Prime Minister noted seizures of fentanyl at the border have decreased.”
The source said the two leaders also discussed the 4-Nations Face-Off hockey summit where Canada beat the U.S. team in a heart-stopping overtime period. The President did not mockingly refer to Mr. Trudeau as governor of the 51st state as he did in social-media posts before the game, the source said.
Mr. Trump told the Prime Minister that he only watched the last part of the game and that both teams played exciting hockey and were evenly matched, the source said.
Mr. Trudeau’s visit to Kyiv is his fourth visit to Ukraine since the war began, and almost certainly his last. He will step down March 9 when a new Liberal leader is elected.
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