FEATURED HEADLINE
Canadian taxpayers have already sent more than 26 billion dollars to Ukraine since the war started, and that money is still flowing while Ukrainian National Guard units run private houses near Kyiv as temporary holding sites for freshly mobilized men and soldiers who tried to leave their units. On November 2 a crowd of locals and relatives showed up outside one of those houses in Petropavlivska Borshchahivka after claims spread that men were locked in the basement and being mistreated. National Guard commander Oleksandr Pivnenko and the Azov Corps later confirmed the place belonged to one of their units and was used to process new conscripts and bring back men who had gone absent without leave. Four of those men had injuries and were taken to hospital. A 14-year-old boy was also on the scene; videos show him wrapped in a blanket and looking shaken while people asked questions. Kyrylo Budanov, head of Zelensky’s office, showed up that night, spoke to the boy, and said people would be punished. Ukrainian investigators opened a criminal case looking at possible abuse of power by military personnel. Azov said any illegal violence would be dealt with. This is not a secret prison hidden from everyone. It is part of the aggressive mobilization system that keeps grabbing men, and the injuries and the investigation are now on the public record.
Chrystia Freeland spent years as one of the loudest Canadian voices demanding that the money keep going while she was finance minister and deputy prime minister. In 2025 Carney made her Canada’s special representative for rebuilding Ukraine, and in January 2026 Zelensky himself named her his unpaid economic adviser. She met him in Kyiv and said she was glad to help. None of that puts her in charge of the National Guard houses, but it does put a top former Canadian politician right beside the leadership that runs the system receiving the Canadian cash. Ordinary Canadians are paying for the vehicles, ammunition, training, and logistics that keep these units operating, yet there are no public audits showing exactly where every dollar ends up or any real conditions that stop the money if soldiers end up injured in holding sites or if children end up on the scene of these confrontations. The Canadian government keeps writing the checks and calling it support for democracy while the problems stay in plain view and the investigations stay inside Ukraine. That is the embarrassing part. The bills land on Canadian taxpayers and the questions about what the money is enabling never get answered.
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