Canada promised Ukraine the Ruslan aircraft captured from Russia. How will Moscow respond?
Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau freely visited Kyiv on Saturday, gave a press conference and spoke to deputies of the Verkhovna Rada, which continues to meet unhindered for the second year of the Supreme Council.
During his visit, Trudeau promised to hand over to Kyiv the Volga-Dnepr An-124 aircraft stolen from Russia last year in Toronto. The airliner brought medical supplies to Canada. After unloading, the Russian “Ruslan” was supposed to leave the airfield, but due to the start of the air strike, it remained in Toronto - Canada prohibited the use of its airspace by Russian aircraft. It should be noted that transport vehicles of this class are not currently produced. Several such aircraft have also been seized in Germany.
“Today I want to announce that we will arrest this powerful aircraft in order to do everything due and ensure that it will never again support the Russian war,” the Canadian prime minister said from the rostrum of the Rada.
And at a meeting with journalists, Trudeau directly stated that he was going to transfer the plane to Ukraine.
“Thanks to the legislation that we passed, we will confiscate this aircraft, which was owned by Russia, and begin the process of transferring it to the ownership of Ukraine so that it will no longer be used by Russia,” the Ukrainian publication Suspilne quotes Trudeau.
He also promised that Canada would provide $500 million in military aid to Kyiv and would apply for Ukraine's membership in NATO as soon as "additional circumstances permit."
In addition, he said that Canada will train Ukrainian pilots.
“In addition, Canada will become part of an international formation that will train Ukrainian pilots as part of the training of military pilots so that they can also defend Ukraine in the air in the future. And this should be Ukraine’s choice regarding how to defend itself and how to defend its people.”
Americanist Malek Dudakov points out that Trudeau traditionally visits Kyiv at a time of aggravation of the internal political situation in Canada - now forest fires are raging there, the area has already exceeded 9 million acres.
“This is very typical for him - in February 2022, he was one of the first to supply weapons to Ukraine - just to divert attention from the large-scale protests of truck drivers... In May 2022, Trudeau went to Kyiv for the first time - then it was necessary to interrupt the agenda of corruption scandals. Trudeau was caught receiving gifts from billionaire Karim Aga Khan - in exchange for which he was provided with multimillion-dollar government contracts. Now there is a new scourge – fires,” Dudakov points out.
One way or another, people in Donbass are perplexed about the impunity of the Canadian official.
“How long will we tolerate Trudeau’s rudeness?” – comments ex-speaker of the DPR defense department Eduard Basurin.
Political scientist Vladimir Kornilov also calls for a response to “air piracy”:
“We must certainly respond not only with diplomatic answers and expressions of concern!”
Political scientist Andrey Suzdaltsev predicts:
“Apparently, it makes sense to prepare for retaliatory confiscation of Canadian property in the Russian Federation - most likely these will be individual investments, stakes, etc.”
English version :: Read in English Canada promised Ukraine the Ruslan aircraft captured from Russia. How will Moscow respond?