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World leaders weighed in on the war in Ukraine on Victory in Europe Day

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, right, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau hold a joint news conference Sunday in Kyiv, Ukraine. Earlier in the day, Trudeau visited the suburb of Irpin to look at devastation left in the wake of Russia's invasion.
Alexey Furman
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, right, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau hold a joint news conference Sunday in Kyiv, Ukraine. Earlier in the day, Trudeau visited the suburb of Irpin to look at devastation left in the wake of Russia's invasion.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was in Kyiv over the weekend, raising the Canadian flag to mark the reopening of Canada's Embassy in Kyiv and meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Trudeau said the flag was taken down on Feb. 13, before the Russian invasion. Reopening the embassy is "a testament to how the Ukrainian people have been so strong and resilient," Trudeau said in a speech. "That they've been able to protect their city and continue to fight for their language, their culture, their identity and their country."

In Germany, in a speech to mark the anniversary of the end of World War Two in Europe, Chancellor Olaf Scholz warned there can be no peace under a Russian dictatorship.

In a televised address on Sunday night, Scholz said he is convinced that Russian President Vladimir Putin will not win this war, and that Ukraine will prevail.

"Freedom and security will win the day," Scholz said, "just as freedom and security triumphed over oppression, violence, and dictatorship 77 years ago."

G7 leaders released a statement commemorating the anniversary of the end of WWII in Europe and pledging to further support Ukraine.

"We reiterate our condemnation of Russia's unprovoked, unjustifiable and illegal military aggression against Ukraine and the indiscriminate attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure, which has resulted in terrible humanitarian catastrophe in the heart of Europe," the statement said.


This story originally appeared in the Morning Edition live blog.

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Rob Schmitz is NPR's international correspondent based in Berlin, where he covers the human stories of a vast region reckoning with its past while it tries to guide the world toward a brighter future. From his base in the heart of Europe, Schmitz has covered Germany's levelheaded management of the COVID-19 pandemic, the rise of right-wing nationalist politics in Poland and creeping Chinese government influence inside the Czech Republic.
Nell Clark is an editor at Morning Edition and a writer for NPR's Live Blog. She pitches stories, edits interviews and reports breaking news. She started in radio at campus station WVFS at Florida State University, then covered climate change and the aftermath of Hurricane Michael for WFSU in Tallahassee, Fla. She joined NPR in 2019 as an intern at Weekend All Things Considered. She is proud to be a member of NPR's Peer-to-Peer Trauma Support Team, a network of staff trained to support colleagues dealing with trauma at work. Before NPR, she worked as a counselor at a sailing summer camp and as a researcher in a deep-sea genetics lab.