ISTANBUL

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday that he spoke with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to discuss strengthening Ukraine’s energy resilience, a NATO initiative to pool allied contributions to the war-torn nation, and cooperation within the coalition of the willing, while also telling about his recent phone call with US President Donald Trump.

“We shared details of our contacts with President Trump. I informed him about the situation on the battlefield and Russia’s vile strikes on our energy infrastructure and people,” Zelenskyy said on Telegram.

“We discussed specific steps that can help us defend against this and strengthen the resilience of our energy system.”

Zelenskyy said Canada has already made a significant contribution to the Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List (PURL) initiative – designed to consolidate and streamline allied contributions, placing Ukraine in the strongest possible position – and said there is potential to expand its involvement in the program.

“We also discussed our joint work with partners within the Coalition of the Willing. The practical side of this format will be strengthened. We coordinated our next steps,” he said, thanking Carney for “his readiness to work substantively across all areas.”

Earlier, Zelenskyy said he had a “very productive” phone call with Trump, congratulating him on securing a Middle East ceasefire agreement and expressing hope that “other wars can be stopped,” referring to Russia’s war on Ukraine.

“I congratulated President Trump on the success and the deal for the Middle East that he actually secured, and (said) that is a strong result. And if it is possible to stop the war in that region, surely other wars can be stopped, including this Russian war,” said the Ukrainian leader.

He said he told Trump about the recent Russian airstrikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and welcomed US readiness to bolster Kyiv’s air defenses.

“There are good options, strong ideas on how to really strengthen us,” Zelenskyy said, adding that Russia “needs to be ready to participate in genuine diplomacy.”