Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - March 7, 2022, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE A3 INVEST IN MANITOBA Your generosity makes local discoveries possible. cancercarefdn.mb.ca WAR IN UKRAINE ASSOCIATE EDITOR, NEWS: STACEY THIDRICKSON: 204-697-7292 ● CITY.DESK@FREEPRESS.MB.CA ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM A3 MONDAY MARCH 7, 2022 Trudeau meeting with allies in Europe MIKE BLANCHFIELD LONDON — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has arrived in Europe to meet with allies about the intensifying situa- tion in Ukraine. Trudeau has meetings set for today in London with the prime ministers of Britain and the Netherlands, and in the days to come, he’s to meet with other leaders in Riga, Latvia, Berlin and War- saw, Poland. He’s also due to meet with the sec- retary-general of NATO and with Can- adian Armed Forces members during his trip. Trudeau left Canada as plans to evacuate civilians from a Ukrainian port city collapsed for the second time. Residents expected to leave Mariu- pol during the 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. local ceasefire, Ukrainian military author- ities said earlier in the day, but Interior Ministry adviser Anton Gerashchenko later said the planned evacuations were halted because of an ongoing assault by Russian troops. The Canadian Prime Minister’s Of- fice says he will work with allies in Europe on responding to Russia’s mil- itary aggression and the humanitarian challenges stemming from the conflict, which has prompted more than a mil- lion people to flee Ukraine since late last month. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zel- enskyy has pleaded for a no-fly zone over his country and lashed out at NATO for refusing to impose one. But NATO has refused, as Russian President Vladimir Putin has made clear he’d consider such a move a hos- tile act. Deploying fighter jets over Ukraine could “in current circumstances” be considered as “NATO’s entry into the war and therefore risk World War III,” European Union leader Charles Michel said in an interview. Instead, the alliance of western na- tions has opted to send weapons and defensive equipment to Ukraine while attacking Russia’s economy. Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly has been in Europe over the past few days in meetings with NATO and European Commission offi- cials about ongoing efforts to sanction Russia. International Development Minister Harjit Sajjan announced plans to travel to Geneva, Switzerland, to meet with the United Nations and other international partners to discuss the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, as well as the situa- tion in Afghanistan and the global re- sponse to the COVID-19 pandemic. After meetings in Geneva today, Saj- jan plans to head to Eastern Europe as well. Meanwhile in Canada, rallies in sup- port of Ukraine continued for a second consecutive weekend. A few dozen people met Sunday after- noon in Parc LaFontaine, one of Mont- real’s largest parks, and marched down the streets to pressure Canadian polit- icians to do more. Raymond Legault, one of Sunday’s rally organizers with Quebec’s associa- tion Échec à la guerre, called for Russia to stop its assault, and urged all involved parties to negotiate and compromise. — The Canadian Press Family staying put in Kyiv, partly because of uncertainty over ability to flee city Surviving horrors of Russia’s attack L ONDON — As Olivia Milton and her husband packed up their four-year-year son up for trips to their Kyiv neighbourhood bomb shelter, they crafted a narrative to explain the flurry of activity to him. With the Russian war on Ukraine underway, Milton, 33, said they told him there was a “crazy man” who was “kind of sick” who was coming to take their land with his warplanes and tanks. “Hey mom, you know, I had a dream today,” Milton recalled her son later telling her later. “I was dreaming while I was sleeping, and I had a dream that I have a police tank that’s protected the city.” Milton reflected on the war in an interview with The Canadian Press from her family’s Kyiv apartment a few days before Prime Minister Justin Tru- deau arrived in London Sunday night for the start of a four-country Europe tour. It offered a subtle human snap- shot of Ukraine’s strife as 1.5 million citizens have fled across Europe in an unprecedented refugee crisis. Milton said she and her family were staying put, in part because they were not sure they would actually be able to safely flee Kyiv. Residents expected to leave Mariu- pol during the 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. local ceasefire, Ukrainian military author- ities said earlier in the day, but Interior Ministry adviser Anton Gerashchenko later said the planned evacuations were halted because of an ongoing assault by Russian troops. It is not possible to know the exact number of people killed so far since the Feb. 24 invasion. The United Nations human rights office said 364 civilians have been confirmed killed, but the true number is likely much higher. Rus- sian and Ukrainian officials have not provided information on military caus- alities. The British defence ministry said Sunday in an intelligence update that Russia’s tactics in Ukraine were com- parable to their previous pummelling of cities in Chechnya in 1999 and Syria in 2016 with airstrikes and artillery, after Russian forces faced unexpected resistance. The intelligence report said the strength of Ukrainian fight- ers continues to surprise the Russians, and that the bombing of cities, includ- ing Kharkiv, Chernihiv and Mariupol represented an effort to break Ukrain- ian morale. In a one-hour conversation on Sunday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo- gan urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to cease the fighting in an attempt to address humanitarian concerns and try to find a political solution. The Kremlin said Putin replied that Russia’s military action in Ukraine could be halted “only if Kyiv ceases hostilities and fulfills the well-known demands of Russia.” With a third round of negotiations between Ukraine and Russia set for Monday, the Kremlin said Putin said he hoped Ukraine would fully consider “emerging realities.” On Monday, Trudeau will compare notes with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson in London, where they will be joined by their Dutch counterpart, Mark Rutte. In the following days, Trudeau is to meet with other leaders in Riga, Latvia, Berlin and Warsaw, Poland. He is to meet NATO Secretary-Gen- eral Jens Stoltenberg and visit the Lat- vian military base where hundreds of Canadian Forces are contributing to Canada’s leadership in that country of NATO’s long-standing deterrence mis- sion to bolster its eastern European flank against Russia. Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly has been in Europe over the past few days in meetings with NATO and European Commission of- ficials about ongoing efforts to sanc- tion Russia. International Development Minister Harjit Sajjan will also travel to Geneva and then join Trudeau in east- ern Europe to meet with the United Na- tions and others for talks on Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zel- enskyy renewed his plea on Sunday for a no-fly zone over his country, saying in a video address that “the world is strong enough to close our skies.” Canada and its NATO allies have ruled out a no-fly zone, saying it would essentially lead to an all-out air war between NATO forces and Russia. Pu- tin has made clear he’d consider such a move a hostile act. Deploying fighter jets over Ukraine could “in current circumstances” be considered as “NATO’s entry into the war and therefore risk World War III,” European Union leader Charles Michel said Sunday in an AP interview. Instead, the alliance of western na- tions has opted to send weapons and defensive equipment to Ukraine while attacking Russia’s economy with a ser- ies of unprecedented moves to isolate it. Before departing Canada on Friday, Trudeau said he wanted to join partners in finding ways to counter disinforma- tion and misinformation that he said was a “particularly strong facet of this conflict, this war in Ukraine.” In Kyiv, Milton said she and her hus- band were working in what she called an “information army” as part of Ukraine’s resistance. She said the group is comprised of hundreds of technology workers, pub- lic relations, marketing and advertis- ing specialists who have been sending information to Western media, bom- barding social media platforms and trying to penetrate into Russia itself to show its population that its young sol- diers are needlessly dying. This includes photos, videos, digital information and other testimonials to back what they are seeing and hearing. Milton and her husband have told their son that his parents have “joined forces with this information army in- forming the world” to explain to him why he must go back and forth between a bomb shelter and can no longer play outside with other children. Her young son, she said, seems to be accepting of the situation, as he told her of his dream of owning a very large tank. “He’s behaving like a young man,” she said. “He says, ‘mom, I will protect you.’” — The Canadian Press MIKE BLANCHFIELD OLEKSANDER RATUSHNIAK / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS A man carries a woman as they cross an improvised path while fleeing the town of Irpin, Ukraine, Sunday. A_03_Mar-07-22_FP_01.indd 3 2022-03-06 9:33 PM ;