KYIV, Ukraine – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is commemorating the victims of mass atrocities in Ukraine this morning, before signing a free trade agreement with the country later today.
Trudeau and his oldest son Xavier laid a bouquet of flowers at a memorial to tens of thousands of Ukrainians, many of them Jews, killed by the Nazis in Kyiv during the Second World War.
Father and son stood side by side to pay a moment of respect at the Babyn Yar monument before leaving hand in hand.
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They then presented a wreath at Ukraine’s Tomb of the Unknown Soldier before visiting a nearby memorial to the Holodomor, a mass famine in the 1930s that Ukrainians blame on the Soviets.
Trudeau will take a break from the commemorations to meet with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and sign the free trade agreement.
Among the other issues expected to come up are whether 200 Canadian troops who have been training Ukrainian forces in the west of the country will remain there past next year, and whether Canada will supply weapons to the country.
VIDEO: Justin Trudeau with sombre visit to Auschwitz