Zelensky’s Appeal to Canada: Imagine if Toronto Were Kyiv.

OTTAWA — In an emotional tackle to Canada’s Parliament on Tuesday, President Volodymyr Zelensky urged its members to help his name for a no-fly zone over Ukraine, asking them to think about cities like Vancouver or Toronto being attacked, and calling for intensifying sanctions within the face of Russian aggression.

Mr. Zelensky known as the invasion of Ukraine a struggle to “annihilate” his nation. Repeatedly addressing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada as “Justin,” he known as on Mr. Trudeau to think about Vancouver being below siege, to think about Toronto’s well-known CN Tower being hit by Russian bombs, to think about youngsters being killed and kindergartens being bombarded.

“That is our actuality,” he mentioned.

Mr. Zelensky requested that Canada and the world to do extra to assist defend Ukraine.

“We’ve been mates with you, Justin,” he mentioned. “But in addition I would really like you to know — and I would really like you to really feel this — what we really feel day-after-day. We wish to stay, and we wish to be victorious.”

The enchantment to Canada’s Parliament adopted a speech by Mr. Zelensky to the British Parliament final week throughout which he invoked Shakespeare and echoed Winston Churchill’s well-known wartime phrases of no give up. It underlined how the Ukrainian president, a former actor and comic, has been in search of to provoke international public opinion towards Russia’s invasion by fashioning himself as a spokesman for liberal democracy, and by casting Russia as a violent risk to the worldwide order.

Mr. Zelensky reiterated his name for international locations to assist Ukraine shut its airspace to guard it from Russian bombardment. And he requested Canada’s giant Ukrainian diaspora — at 1.4 million individuals, among the many largest on this planet — to rally behind their native nation.

He was met with a standing ovation by members of Canada’s Senate and Home of Commons, protracted and thunderous applause, and shouts of help.

“In Canada we prefer to root for the underdog,” Mr. Trudeau advised the Home of Commons forward of Mr. Zelensky’s look, calling the Ukrainian chief a “hero of democracy.”

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has been met with notably visceral emotion in Canada, due to its giant variety of individuals with Ukrainian roots. They embody the nation’s deputy prime minister, Chrystia Freeland, whose mom was Ukrainian-Canadian.

Talking after Russia invaded Ukraine in late February, Ms. Freeland, who studied for a time in Ukraine within the late Eighties, mentioned that President Vladimir V. Putin had cemented his place “within the ranks of the reviled European dictators who precipitated such carnage within the twentieth century.”

“The horrific human prices of this merciless invasion are the direct and private accountability of Vladimir Putin,” she mentioned in a speech peppered with Russian and Ukrainian, including, “To my very own Ukrainian-Canadian neighborhood,” she mentioned, “let me say this: Now’s the time for us to be robust as we help our family and friends in Ukraine.”

Beneath the management of Mr. Trudeau and Ms. Freeland, who speaks Ukrainian along with her youngsters at residence, Canada has taken a powerful stance towards Russia. In late February, it unveiled monetary sanctions towards 62 Russian people and entities, together with members of the Russian elite, and halted all export permits.

Final week, Mr. Trudeau expanded these measures by including 5 extra individuals to the listing, amongst them the oligarch Roman Abramovich, who was lately added to British sanctions. On Tuesday, Mr. Trudeau mentioned the measures had been additional expanded to incorporate 15 extra Russians.

Canada has despatched navy gear to Ukraine, together with airborne digital camera programs for monitoring Russian troop actions and humanitarian help. From 2015 up till the Russian invasion, about 200 members of Canada’s navy had been in Ukraine offering coaching to its armed forces.

Amid considerations of a brand new European refugee disaster as Ukrainians flee the nation, Mr. Trudeau has additionally mentioned Canada would prioritize immigration purposes for Ukrainians and elevate limits on visas.