Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau paid a surprise visit to the Ukrainian town of Irpin, which had been temporarily held by Russian troops, the town's mayor said on Telegram.
"I've just had an honor to meet with the Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau, who came to Irpin to see with his own eyes all the horror which Russian occupiers have caused to our town," Irpin Mayor Oleksandr Markushyn said on his Telegram channel.
Trudeau, addressing a news conference after talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said Canada was imposing new sanctions on Russian individuals and entities in connection with Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
"Today, I'm announcing more military assistance, drone cameras, satellite imagery, small arms, ammunition and other support, including funding for demining operations," Trudeau said.
"And we're bringing forward new sanctions on 40 Russian individuals and five entities, oligarchs and close associates of the regime in the defense sector, all of them complicit in Putin's war," in a reference to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Trudeau visited the town of Irpin outside Kyiv, the focal point of fierce battles between Ukrainian and Russian troops before the Russians withdrew late in March.
He said Canada was reopening its embassy in the Ukrainian capital.
Canada was also providing $25 million to the U.N.'s World Food Programme as part of efforts to uphold food security and would remove trade tariffs on all Ukrainian imports to Canada for next year.
Trudeau is the latest Western leader to come to Ukraine to offer their support to the country.
U.S. first lady Jill Biden made an unannounced visit to western Ukraine. She held a surprise Mother’s Day meeting with Ukraine's first lady, Olena Zelenska, at a village school as Russia pressed its punishing war in the eastern regions.
Biden traveled under the cloak of secrecy, becoming the latest high-profile American to enter Ukraine during its 10-week-old conflict with Russia.
