Zelenskyy comes to Ottawa as Ukraine scrambles to shore up allies' support

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy touched down in Ottawa late Thursday night — and experts say the political headwinds he'll face in Canada likely will be less chilly than those he experienced in Washington.

Zelenskyy is on a two-day visit which will conclude with a stop in Toronto for a meeting with the business community.

It's his first trip to Canada since the full Russian invasion last year.

Along with his new defence minister, Rustem Umerov, Zelenskyy will meet and brief federal cabinet ministers on the progress the Ukrainian military has made since it launched a counteroffensive in June to drive Russian forces out of the country.

It's expected Ottawa will announce further military and social assistance while Zelenskyy is in the country. There will also be a formal welcoming ceremony on Parliament Hill today.

During a whirlwind stop in Washington on Thursday, Zelenskyy received a more subdued reception than the hero's welcome he got late last year. There was no band to greet him at the Pentagon and U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy — mindful of the Republicans who are tired of funding Ukraine's war effort — chose not to greet the Ukrainian leader before the cameras.

Zelenskyy won generally favourable reviews from U.S. lawmakers for his pitch for further war assistance.

Despite the warm words from most congressmen and senators, Zelenskyy left behind a moderately divided Washington. He is expected to face a less skeptical audience in the House of Commons today, where he'll deliver an address to MPs and senators.

"I don't see divisions in terms of political support" in Canada, said Dominique Arel, chair of Ukrainian studies at the University of Ottawa. He said political skepticism in Washington is not as wide or deep as it may seem right now.

"Although the Republican party is divided, it's not going full anti-Ukraine, pro-Trump on that score," he said.

One of Zelenskyy's objectives in Ottawa — as it was in Washington — will be to reassure lawmakers that his country is making progress in its counteroffensive in the east and south and Ukraine has a strategy for victory, Arel said.

Eighteen months since the full Russian invasion, he said, the pressure is on Zelenskyy to make a compelling argument to Canadians that his country is engaged in a kind of a high-intensity warfare that Europe hasn't seen since the 1940s, and that "these are long wars."

Negotiations with individual allies on security assurances are central to Ukraine's war effort. At the NATO summit in July, G7 countries pledged to negotiate long-term security arrangements while Ukraine waits to be accepted in NATO.

That will require sustained, predictable funding from allies, including Canada and the U.S.