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Ukraine is looking for Canada's backing as the embattled eastern European country establishes a special court to deal with anti-corruption cases.

Legislation to set up the separate judicial framework is still making its way through the Ukrainian parliament, but the country's deputy Speaker OksanaSyroyid saidher government needs other nations to help select independent-minded judges.

Syroyidis in Ottawa for three days of meetings with Canadian officials, where she is pressing the case for judicial reform, but also explaining the growing complexities of the war with Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.

Faith in the justice system has been sorely tested in two recent cases, one of them involving a powerful ex-lawmaker, Mykola Martynenko, who is accused of widespread corruption.

He was arrested April 21on a series of charges.

But he was granted bail under a judiciary which is still largely modelled on the old Soviet system and populated with appointees of ousted former president Viktor Yanukovych.

Syroyid saidthe dismay of ordinary people is understandable.

"They just don't have trust in the justice system," said Syroyid, who received a master's degree in law from the University of Ottawa in 2003.

"Trust has been lost, unfortunately, a long time ago. People of Ukraine are frustrated by state institutions in general. For decades, Ukrainian state institutions were working not for the people of Ukraine but for the interests of seven specific persons," she said, referencingpowerful oligarchs who have andin some casescontinue to control vast swaths of the country's economy.

Oksana Syroyid, deputy Speaker of Ukraine's parliament, was in Ottawa and Washington pressing the case for judicial reform. (Murray Brewster/CBC)

Both the Canadian and American embassies were consulted in the development of the legislation for the anti-corruption court, and Syroyid saidshe believes Canada would have several good candidates to help in the selection of judges.

A separate court is also one of the benchmarks established by the International Monetary Fund, which is pressuring the current government of Petro Poroshenko to clean up the economy.

The country recently established a separate prosecution wing for high-level official corruption.

Syroyid saidoverhauling the existing justice system is a going to be a decade-long process that will require training lawyers and judges in a completely new way of thinking.

Ukraine's issues were underlined recently when four former Berkut riot police officers were granted bail after being charged with murder and torture related to the 2014 Maidan protests that brought down the Yanukovych government.

Each of the former, highly trained cops promptly fled to Russia, claiming in local media reportsthat it was "too dangerous" for them to remain in Ukraine.

The country's interior minister has been accused of obstructing the prosecution. The department oversaw the officers, whowere accused of firing into protesters during the uprising, killing as many as 100 people.

At least six other members of the same unit, including one commander, fled the country in 2014 to avoid prosecution.

Canada has been involved in helping Ukraine overhaul its traffic police, training and equipping new officers.

The Trudeau government also committed to helping with judicial reform and pledged funding to develop a modern legal aid system, which Syroyid saidwill go a long way to restoring faith in the justice system for ordinary people.

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Ukraine seeking Canada's help to set up high-level corruption court - CBC.ca

Steven Seagal attends qualifying ahead of the Russian Formula One Grand Prix at Sochi Autodrom in Sochi, Russia on October 11, 2014.

Clive Mason / Getty Images

MINSK, Belarus -- Ukraine has banned action film actorSteven Seagal from entering the country for five years.

Seagal, an American, was given Russian citizenship by President Vladimir Putin last year in a ceremony shown on state television. He has vocally defended the Russian leader's policies and criticized the U.S. government.

A statement from the Ukrainian Security Service on Friday said Seagal's entry was banned "on the basis of Ukrainian national security." It did not elaborate.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, speaks with US actor Steven Seagal, left, at the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi on August 11, 2012.

AFP/Getty Images

Seagal also reportedly has spoken in favor of Russia's 2014 annexation of the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine. That same year, Putin enlisted Seagal to preach physical fitness and to sell his vision, CBS News correspondent Elizabeth Palmer reports.

"I know him well enough to know that he is one of the greatest world leaders, if not the greatest world leader, alive today," Seagal said of Putin at the time. "He cares more about Russia than anybody I know. And he's not afraid to get up and do what needs to be done."

2017 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Ukraine bans Steven Seagal as national security threat - CBS News

"On Ukraine, the sides will discuss the need to stop the violence in eastern Ukraine and resolve the conflict through the full implementation of the Minsk agreements," the department said in a statement.

"On Syria, the secretary intends to discuss efforts to de-escalate violence, provide humanitarian assistance to the Syrian people, and set the stage for a political settlement of the conflict," it said.

In addition to the tensions between Washington and Moscow over geopolitics, the meeting also comes against a backdrop of recriminations over alleged Russian interference in the 2016 elections.

The announcement came out as former acting Attorney General Sally Yates prepares to testify in front of a Senate subcommittee Monday about the content and timing of what she told the Trump White House about former national security adviser Michael Flynn's ties to Russia.

Her testimony will push the story of the Trump campaign's alleged ties to Russia back into the headlines.

In an interview last week, Trump once again refused to blame Russia for attempting to influence the 2016 election through hacking and other means despite an overwhelming consensus by US law enforcement and intelligence agencies.

Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin also spoke by phone last week about the war in Syria for the first time since Trump ordered a missile strike against a Syrian regime air base last month.

The conflict in Ukraine, where Russia has backed separatists, continues unresolved and the US has not lifted sanctions on Russia for its role in the violence there and its annexation of Crimea.

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Tillerson, Lavrov to meet in Washington on Syria and Ukraine - CNN

Ruslana delivers her winning performance in the 2004 Eurovision Song Contest in Istanbul. Photograph: Photograph: Murad Sezer/AP

In its preview of the 2004 Eurovision song contest, The Irish Times described Ukraines Ruslana as a Catherine Zeta-Jones lookalike in Xena Warrior Princess gear and her song Wild Dances as Europop meets Carpathian mountain music.

As it turned out, victory in Istanbul was just the start of adventures that would make Ruslana Lyzhychko one of the faces and voices of two revolutions, and take her into Ukraines parliament and on mercy missions to its eastern warzone.

As Ukraine prepares to host its second Eurovision this week, Ruslana recalled how the contest first came to Kiev in 2005, just months after the Orange Revolution had brought pro-western politicians to power.

She had joined hundreds of thousands of demonstrators on Kievs central Maidan square, and even announced a hunger strike in protest at the rigged 2004 election victory of Russian-backed presidential candidate Viktor Yanukovich.

When the protests overturned that result and Viktor Yushchenko won repeat elections, Ruslana became a deputy in a parliament that was expected to guide Ukraine away from Russia and towards the West.

But the reform drive stalled, the revolutions leaders turned on each other, and the old corrupt ways of governing remained unchanged. Yanukovich was soon on the comeback trail, and in summer 2007 Ruslana resigned from parliament.

I was very disappointed with that first revolution. They sold and ruined everything. We saw that ideas could just be sold off and politicians couldnt be trusted, she said.

A similar thing is happening again now with our politicians. But Ukraine has felt the power of unity and [its people] know that we can do it. Politicians wont change much, but the people can do everything.

Her optimism in the face of Ukraines struggles is fuelled by memories of her second revolution known as EuroMaidan or the Revolution of Dignity which drove Yanukovich into Russian exile in February 2014.

Through three freezing months, people from across Ukraine and from all walks of life turned Maidan into a vast protest camp of tents, banners, burning braziers and barricades, sustained by an army of volunteers who brought them food, firewood, warm drinks and winter clothes.

For 90 nights I was on the stage on Maidan, said Ruslana, whose voice often carried Ukraines national anthem out over the square in the biting, pre-dawn cold.

At my concerts I use the microphone to inspire people, and on Maidan I used it to calm people down and feel safe: Mir i spokoi, she whispered, repeating her call to protesters at times of rising tension Peace and quiet.

I lost my voice, but it came back again. It felt like Maidan was the centre of the world and life was being reborn. People could come out and show their feelings. I saw the courage and strength of the Ukrainian people there.

After his security forces shot dead scores of protesters on Maidan, Yanukovich fled with relations and close allies to Russia, as Moscow launched its annexation of Crimea and started fomenting a separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine.

Ruslana subsequently visited the militants stronghold of Donetsk several times to help negotiate the release of dozens of Ukrainian servicemen captured during a war that has now killed 10,000 people and displaced 1.5 million.

People are very tired of this tragic situation of the last three years. We dont need or want this [war] and we want to solve this peacefully, she said.

Russia is boycotting Eurovision after its entrant was barred from Ukraine for illegally entering annexed Crimea, and Moscow rejected offers to have her perform by video link or to send another contestant to Kiev.

I hope when Eurovision begins we will have got past this [Russian] provocation and be able to concentrate on a celebration of music. We dont need any other provocations, Ruslana said, as Ukraines security forces deployed some 16,000 officers to Kiev to protect the contest and events for visitors around the city.

This is extremely important for Ukraine, Ruslana said during a break in rehearsals for her own performance in the interval of Saturdays Eurovision final. This is a good chance to show ourselves to the world. It will be the best of Ukraine.

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Ukraine's Ruslana: From Eurovision to revolution and back - Irish Times

Sen. John McCain and five other senators are urging President Trump to hold off on meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin until he has first met with Ukrainian leaders.

The senators, who include Republican and Democratic members of the Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees, wrote to the president after he and Putin reportedly discussed a first face-to-face meeting in July on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Germany.

Russia has incurred international condemnation and stoked widespread concerns among the United States' European allies for fueling a conflict in eastern Ukraine against the government of President Petro Poroshenko.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration is still formulating its approach to Russian aggression and long-time commitments such as the NATO alliance as questions continue to swirl over its relationship with Moscow, which the U.S. intelligence community says meddled in the presidential election last year.

"Meeting with democratically elected representatives from Ukraine would send a strong signal that the United States continues to prioritize our relationship with longstanding allies, and will continue our commitments to support Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity in the face of ongoing aggression," they wrote in the May 4 letter.

Discussions of the possible meeting between Trump and Putin were reported by the Kremlin, but not included in a readout of the phone call released by the White House.

McCain and fellow Republicans James Inhofe and Rob Portman, along with Democrats Bob Menendez, Jeanne Shaheen and Bob Casey, praised the president for Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's decision to attend a NATO foreign ministers meeting in March, following reports he would not go.

"Many of our allies in Europe are anxiously awaiting policy direction from your administration about our commitments to NATO and other institutions that preserve the international order that has served as the framework for international stability and security since the end of the Second World War," the senators wrote.

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Senators urge Trump to meet with Ukraine leaders before Putin - Washington Examiner