PAVLOHRAD, Ukraine -- President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ottawa will provide Ukraine with air defense support as he visited Canada in an attempt to shore up support from the country's allies amid deadly Russian drone and missile attacks.
"This is a very important package of air defense," he told reporters on September 10, adding that Canada will also provide aid to Ukraine's energy industry. He provided no further details.
The Ukrainian president arrived in Canada's western city of Calgary a night earlier after a visit to Norway for the funeral of King Harald V and talks on air defense support.
His plane was delayed on its way to Oslo after an alert in Moldova that a Russian drone had entered the nearby airspace.
"Canada remains one of our closest partners," Zelenskyy wrote on X after his arrival in Canada. "We value the support of the Canadian people and the decisions that help Ukraine to withstand the war and to protect our people."
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From Russia With Expertise: Iranian Students Return Home With Potentially Deadly Knowledge Of Drones, AI, And MoreZelenskyy's visit came as Russia continued to launch intense air attacks on Ukraine, with fresh strikes reported on September 10 in Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, and Mykolayiv regions.
At least 10 people were killed in Russian strikes across these regions, while more than 100 others were injured, including children.
In Dnipro, the capital of the east-central Dnipropetrovsk region, Russian forces struck a food-industry facility that had already been damaged in an earlier attack the same day, while in neighboring Pavlohrad, a shopping area and cars caught fire after an evening strike.
"There was a hit in central Pavlohrad by a Shahed drone," RFE/RL Ukrainian Service correspondent Roman Pahulych reported from the aftermath site, adding that another strike followed less than a minute later.
"There are shopping premises here. There was heavy traffic here -- a bus stop is located here," he added, as he filmed devastating images showing ruined buildings and burnt-out cars.
Farther east, in the frontline city of Kramatorsk in the Donetsk region, regional authorities said Russian forces had struck four times, with impacts reported near educational facilities and a multistory residential building.
Russian air strikes also hit the southern port city of Mykolayiv, as well as civilian and industrial infrastructure in the surrounding region.
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Aftermath of Russian Attacks on Ukrainian Cities
Moscow has stepped up its air war in recent months, using ballistic missiles and jet-powered drones that have taken advantage of Ukraine's dwindling air defenses. Among other targets, the attacks have hit Ukraine's power grid ahead of the upcoming fifth wartime winter.
Since the beginning of its invasion, Russia has sought to paralyze Ukraine's energy system, leaving thousands of people across the country with no heating and electricity amid freezing temperatures.
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Russia's Jet-Powered Drones: A Major New Threat To Ukraine Amid Speeding Arms RaceUkraine, meanwhile, has continued its own long-range strikes inside Russia.
Overnight on September 9-10, Ukrainian drones struck the Russian Caspian Sea port of Makhachkala in Daghestan. Elsewhere, Russian authorities reported one person died and two were injured in another attack in the Voronezh region. Russia's Defense Ministry claimed that 448 Ukrainian drones were shot down overnight.
The intensifying exchange of strikes has put air defense and the protection of Ukraine's energy infrastructure at the center of Zelenskyy's trip.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said in a statement on September 9 that Zelenskyy's visit "will focus on shared priorities between Canada and Ukraine, including deepening defense, economic, and energy cooperation."
"It will also address the human cost of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine and build on the strong people-to-people ties that connect our countries," the statement said, adding that Canada "remains steadfast in our commitment to support Ukraine's defense, recovery, and reconstruction."
Renewed Diplomatic Efforts
As fighting remains intense, Zelenskyy's latest international trip comes amid renewed US-mediated efforts to find a path toward ending the war.
After months of stalled talks aimed at ending the conflict, US special envoys Steven Witkoff and Jared Kushner visited Kyiv and Moscow over the past weekend in what appeared to be the latest attempt to narrow the gap between the two sides' negotiating terms.
Days later, Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke by phone with US President Donald Trump, a conversation the Kremlin described as "constructive and quite frank."
"We had a great conversation. He [Putin] is wanting to make a deal, and if Zelenskyy is wanting to make a deal, that'd be very nice," Trump told reporters on September 9, adding, "These are two people that are tired of fighting."
Putin has given no sign he is ready for a cease-fire unless Kyiv makes major concessions it has rejected, including ceding territory in the eastern Donbas region that Russian troops have been unable to take by force.
Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov suggested Putin told Trump that an immediate cease-fire could be secured if the United States would end all support for Kyiv.
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US Envoys Conclude Moscow Meeting With Putin As Kremlin Cites 'Difficult Situation'On September 9, the Financial Times reported that CIA Director John Ratcliffe is preparing to take a bigger role in US negotiations with Russia and Ukraine, citing unnamed sources the paper said indicated the roles of US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner might be scaled back to make room for Ratcliffe.
In a post on X, White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly called the FT story "incorrect and ridiculous." CIA spokeswoman Liz Lyons, also on X, wrote: "This reporting is false."
Witkoff and Kushner have led the talks with Moscow and Kyiv for the last year and a half.
According to the FT, officials close to Ratcliffe have told their European peers that in addition to maintaining contact with intelligence agencies in both Russia and Ukraine, the CIA director would now play a more active role in shuttle diplomacy.