EDMONTON, Canada — Former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko came to Edmonton on Nov. 25, honoring a long-standing invitation from the Ukrainian-Canadian community in this provincial capital of nearly 1 million people.
Following a security conference in Halifax, Poroshenko stopped in Edmonton to address more than 300 elected officials, academics and community members in a lecture hosted by the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Alberta. He also met with Chrystia Freeland, deputy prime minister, and Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, whom Poroshenko praised for his support of Ukraine in 2015 as Canada’s defense minister.
“This is a historic moment, as I’ve been planning to visit Edmonton for more than 10 years,” Poroshenko said, adding that he also got a chance to visit the office of the Ukrainian Consulate General, which opened in 2018 and now serves as a “bridge between Canada and Ukraine.”
Poroshenko opened his 40-minute lecture on geopolitical challenges for Ukraine by stressing a “very special” partnership between the two countries through history, language and migration, and stressed the urgency of challenging autocratic leaders like Russian President Vladimir Putin as a united front.
He also called on Canadians to continue to stand with Ukraine against Russian aggression and partner to build a more free world. “You were shoulder-to-shoulder with us in 2014,” said Poroshenko of Canada when Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea began. “It is hard to convince others that our war is your war. But Russia is a challenge to everybody.”
Poroshenko’s speech comes two weeks before the Dec. 9 Normandy Summit in Paris, led by French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. These are the four-way talks among France, Germany, Russia, and Ukraine in an effort to end Russia’s war in eastern Ukraine.
The previous Normandy format meetings brought about the Minsk I and II agreements of 2014 and 2015, both aimed at ending the war in the Donbas. But Russia did not honor any of the conditions outlined in those agreements, reached after Ukraine suffered key battlefield losses. The Dec. 9 meeting will be the first time the leaders get together in more than three years.
The meeting will be a test for Volodymyr Zelensky, who crushed Poroshenko in a landslide victory on April 21, at a time when his popularity has begun to fall and his peace overtures to Russia have given rise to anti-government protests.
“People want peace, not capitulation,” Poroshenko said of the upcoming meeting, referring to the so-called Steinmeier formula on the sequencing of special status for Russian-controlled Donbas, including local elections. “We need peace on Ukraine’s terms, nothing should undermine Ukraine’s unity and there should be no federalization talks.”
Security issues will be key for Ukraine, Poroshenko said, adding that the country insists on the withdrawal of Russian troops and artillery and the release of Ukrainian hostages. He said the Normandy meeting could remind the world of the importance of Russia’s war in the Donbas, a critical issue in the tense relations between Russia and the West that tends to be sidelined by other events.
While Ukraine drew the spotlight during two weeks of public hearings into the possible impeachment of U.S. President Donald J. Trump, keeping bipartisan support for Ukraine in the United States, Poroshenko said, will be crucial to helping Ukraine prevail against Russia.
“The American presidential struggle is for Americans,” he said, referring to Trump’s political troubles. “But Ukraine’s struggle with Russia, that is for the entire free world.”
Another issue where Ukraine should be careful, according to the former president, is its energy strategy. The natural gas pipeline from Russia to Germany – Nord Stream 2 – cleared its last obstacle on Oct. 30 when Denmark agreed to let the pipeline pass through its waters. It seriously undercuts Ukraine’s energy security at times when Russia’s Gazprom and Ukraine’s Naftogaz are negotiating a new gas contract. The pipeline doubles existing transit capacity between Germany and Russia, to 110 billion cubic meters, bypassing Ukraine’s land-based pipelines through which most Russian gas to Europe has been exported historically.
In response to a question from the Kyiv Post, Poroshenko said that the impeachment proceedings have created a global distraction that has benefited Putin.
“Putin wants to switch attention away from Russia to Ukrainegate so that the U.S. won’t be able to impose sanctions on companies that are involved in developing the Nord Stream 2,” he said. “Halting the completion of the Nord Stream 2 is not just Ukraine’s private or even national interest, it’s a question of Europe’s energetic independence and sanctions will be the only effective tool in ensuring it.”
The Halifax International Security Forum, where Poroshenko spoke over the weekend, also highlighted this issue. At the end of the day, it will be up to the U.S. Congress to sanction companies involved in the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. Those sanctions have already been added to the draft 2020 National Defense Authorization Act, however, but if and when they are approved, they will come late. Nord Stream 2 is mostly built already.
The plan to transport natural gas through the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany while bypassing Ukraine has come under fire from the Trump administration and several European countries, who argue it will increase Europe’s dependence on Russia for energy.
At the end of his lecture, Poroshenko promised to personally support the Ukrainian studies program in Canada and at the University of Alberta – a message he voiced again later that day at the banquet that brought together 200 members of Ukrainian- Canadian community, including lawmakers, diplomats, and clergy. There, Poroshenko also thanked Bishop Hilarion of the autonomous Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada and bishop of Edmonton, who supported Ukraine’s church on its way to autocephaly, or the Tomos that was granted in January.
Freeland, who also participated in the banquet, shared the sentiment.
“I also want to thank you (Poroshenko) for defending and gaining independence for our church with autocephaly. It’s a truly historic moment, and you played a key role in that, as well as our Bishop Hilarion of Edmonton,” she said.
Freeland also praised Poroshenko’s quest for peace in Ukraine. “The world will not forget what you have done for Ukraine’s sovereignty. Our Ivan Franko once wrote about a crucial moment in everybody’s life for which all of us should be ready. And you were ready for this moment. History might have been different.”
As the four-hour banquet was coming to end, Poroshenko once again asked Canada to stay strong with his country.
“The future of the free world is being decided in Ukraine,” he said, presenting a parting gift to the Ukrainian Canadian Congress: A Ukrainian flag that he brought from the Donetsk Oblast city of Avdiyivka, where Ukrainian soldiers are defending the country at the front line of a war that nears its sixth year.
