Ukrainian President Zelenskyy visiting Canada this week: sources

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will be visiting Canada later this week and will deliver an address to Parliament, sources tell CTV News.

Zelenskyy is expected to arrive late Thursday and will deliver a speech to Parliament on Friday morning, rounding out parliamentarians' first week back on the Hill.

He will then head to Toronto and depart later that day, spending approximately 24 hours in this country.

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This visit—his first since Russian President Vladimir Putin's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine—has not been officially announced, but preparations are already underway in the nation's capital.

Zelenskyy will be coming to Canada following a visit with U.S. President Joe Biden at the White House in Washington, D.C., and on the heels of his Tuesday address at the United Nations General Assembly in New York City. 

The Ukrainian president delivered a straightforward and emotional virtual address translated from Ukrainian to the Canadian Parliament in March 2022, imploring members of the House of Commons, Senate, as well as the top officials and special guests present, for further urgent assistance.

If his Tuesday remarks in English to a room full of international officials offer any indication of the message Zelenskyy will be sharing with a Canadian audience, it is likely he will call allies not to succumb to war fatigue, and to be unified and steadfast in their opposition to Russia.

"When hatred is weaponized against one nation, it never stops there. Each decade, Russia starts a new war," Zelenskyy said.

"The goal of the present war against Ukraine is to turn our land, our people, our lives, our resources, into a weapon against you. Against the international rules-based order. Many seats in the General Assembly hall may become empty, empty if Russia succeeds with its treachery, and aggression."