Freeland steps down as Canada’s Ukraine envoy, will resign as MP soon

By Canadian Press on January 5, 2026.

OTTAWA — Liberal MP Chrystia Freeland says she is stepping down as the prime minister’s special representative for the reconstruction of Ukraine and will also leave Parliament in the coming weeks.

Her announcement on social media today comes just hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appointed her as an unpaid adviser on economic development.

In his own post, Zelenskyy says Ukraine needs to strengthen what he called its “internal resilience.”

Freeland has long expressed support for Ukraine after Russia’s invasion, and has said the country could become an economic juggernaut by taking up the opportunities it missed after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Freeland, who has Ukrainian ancestry, was a cabinet minister and deputy prime minister in Justin Trudeau’s government, and was named transport minister by Mark Carney when he was sworn in as prime minister last year.

In September she announced she would leave cabinet and was named Canada’s special representative for the reconstruction of Ukraine.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 5, 2026.

David Baxter, The Canadian Press