{"id":494887,"date":"2026-01-05T20:48:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T20:48:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/494887\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T20:48:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T20:48:09","slug":"zelenskyy-names-canadas-ex-finance-minister-as-economic-adviser-in-ukraine-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/494887\/","title":{"rendered":"Zelenskyy names Canada\u2019s ex-finance minister as economic adviser in Ukraine | Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ukraine\u2019s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy<\/a> has named Canada\u2019s former finance minister Chrystia Freeland as an adviser on economic development, a move he says will help strengthen the \u201cinternal resilience\u201d of the war-torn nation.<\/p>\n

\u201cChrystia is highly skilled in these matters and has extensive experience in attracting investment and implementing economic transformations,\u201d he wrote on social media. \u201cRight now, Ukraine<\/a> needs to strengthen its internal resilience \u2013 both for the sake of Ukraine\u2019s recovery if diplomacy delivers results as swiftly as possible, and to reinforce our defence if, because of delays by our partners, it takes longer to bring this war to an end.\u201d<\/p>\n

The move comes amid a major government shake-up in Kyiv, as Zelenskyy replaces several key figures. The Ukrainian president appointed the popular head of military intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov, as his new chief of staff last week, after Andriy Yermak, formerly his closest confidant, was forced to resign in late November. On Monday, Vasyl Maliuk, the powerful head of the SBU security service, resigned under pressure from Zelenskyy<\/a>, meaning a change of leadership in all three of Ukraine\u2019s intelligence services.<\/p>\n

Zelenskyy has also appointed a number of new advisers, including Freeland, who speak Ukrainian and have deep ancestral ties to the country. Freeland has long advocated for Ukraine to realize its economic potential, which she said has gone unrealized in part because of its<\/a> historic ties to Russia.<\/p>\n

Her appointment to the new role comes as western leaders, including Canada\u2019s prime minister Mark Carney<\/a>, convene in Paris to discuss ways to end the four-year war, which began when Russia invaded in February 2022.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur country has two paths. The first path is peaceful, diplomatic, and it is a priority for us today. We want to end the war. At some point, if Russia<\/a> blocks it and the partners do not force Russia to stop the war, there will be another path \u2013 to defend ourselves,\u201d Zelenskyy told reporters on Saturday. \u201cAnd at this point, fresh forces will be needed. I will go through a parallel reboot of all structures- just in case.\u201d<\/p>\n

Freeland, a former journalist, previously served in prominent cabinet roles under prime minister Justin Trudeau<\/a>, including as both finance minister and deputy prime minister. But she also publicly sparred with Trudeau on economic matters, resigning from the cabinet in December 2024<\/a> \u2013 a decision that led to Trudeau\u2019s eventual resignation.<\/p>\n

Freeland became minister of transport and internal trade minister under Carney but resigned in September after he named her Canada\u2019s special representative for the reconstruction of Ukraine \u2013 a newly created role for which he said she was \u201ctruly uniquely positioned\u201d<\/a>, given her \u201cdeep relationships and understanding of Ukraine\u201d.<\/p>\n

As a young exchange student activist in Ukraine, Freeland\u2019s pro-democracy work caught the attention of the KGB attention, which gave her the code name \u201cFrida\u201d and both surveilled her and targeted the young activist with smear campaigns<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThough I was eventually forced to leave the country, I have no regrets about my time in Ukraine during the Soviet period,\u201d Freeland said in a statement. \u201cOut of this experience, what struck me, very powerfully, was how quickly a rotten political system could collapse, and how important the work of brave dissidents could be.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the 1990s, she worked in Russia for the Financial Times, and authored a book about the post-communist privatisation of Russian industry. Later, Freeland was a frequent visitor to Ukraine, where for many years she was the main host of an annual discussion forum run by oligarch Victor Pinchuk, which drew political figures from across the world.<\/p>\n

Freeland, who is still a sitting lawmaker representing an electoral district in Toronto, was also named CEO of the Rhodes Trust the Oxford, England-based educational charity that grants the Rhode Scholarship and will take up the role on 1 July. She will not run for re-election in Canada<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ukraine\u2019s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has named Canada\u2019s former finance minister Chrystia Freeland as an adviser on economic development,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":494888,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2147,50],"class_list":{"0":"post-494887","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-canada","9":"tag-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115844461797945522","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=494887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/494888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=494887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=494887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=494887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}