Canada is one of Ukraine’s most generous partners. With an offer of more than five billion dollars since the start of the Russian offensive almost a year ago, Canadian aid ranks fourth among donor countries. Although the majority of these funds were first disbursed in the form of loans, this contribution was quickly militarized as the conflict progressed. Sending lethal equipment, which was initially taboo, is now part of the Western arsenal deployed in Ukraine.
The support given to the country since January 24, 2022 — the date when NATO began to strengthen its presence in Eastern Europe — reaches $5.2 billion, according to the compilation of the Dutywhich brings together data from the Ministries of Global Affairs, Finance and Defense, as well as the Kiel Institute’s Ukraine Support Tracker.
“Half of this aid is financial, which sets Canada apart from other countries,” observes Dominique Arel, holder of the Chair of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Ottawa. Military aid represents 43% of the envelope, and humanitarian aid 7%.
Canada’s ties to Ukraine go back decades, marked by five waves of immigration. The Ukrainian diaspora in Canada is the second largest in the world (1.36 million people), behind that of Russia. Over 150,000 refugees have arrived in the past year.
Canada was the first Western country to recognize Ukraine’s independence, and it was here that the first banknotes were printed.
“This is what partly explains our desire to naturally give everything we have the means to give them,” said retired Lieutenant-Colonel Rémi Landry.
A historic support that also transcends political borders, notes Professor Arel. “Even before the invasion, the federal parties were not divided on the Ukrainian question, such as whether we should mediate more with Russia. There were no pro-Russian political parties, as in some European countries. »
More offensive military aid
To replenish the Ukrainian army and give it the means to repel the Russian forces, Canada dipped into the reserves of equipment of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF), but also placed new orders. The Kiel Institute, a German think tank that has estimated the value of each of these donations, puts Canadian military aid at $2.26 billion. According to the analysis of Dutyhalf of this amount is new purchases, or $1.02 billion.
This is “Canada’s most important military contribution abroad”, according to the analysis of Lieutenant-Colonel Landry, now associate professor of political science at the University of Sherbrooke.
Among the new purchases, $500 million were ordered from Canadian suppliers, and $522 million from abroad.
Although Canada, like its allies, initially sent only non-lethal aid to Ukraine (winter items, helmets, satellite imagery and communications equipment, food rations, meal), this aid was quickly transformed with the dispatch of heavy weapons from April (in particular anti-tank weapons and howitzers).
Ottawa and its NATO partners even took another step last month by agreeing to send tanks to the Ukrainian army, which is preparing for a new Russian offensive. “This aid is constantly increasing because it follows the performance curve of the Ukrainian army, which has proven that it is capable of defending itself and using the weapons that are sent to it”, says the professor Arel.
“We reacted quickly,” said Lieutenant-Colonel Landry. “Canada would have a hard time doing more than what it is doing now without limiting its capabilities,” he notes, however.
A slightly faster escalation of aid from the West could also have prevented the scale of the atrocities committed against the Ukrainian population, he said. “If we had done this from the start, the level of destruction probably wouldn’t be the same as it is now. »
Billions in loans
Canada also does well when it comes to financial aid, according to experts. The loans were spread out from February to December 2022. Ukraine would have lost up to 30% of its gross national product in one year, according to Dominique Arel. Its companies being destroyed, this aid allows Ukraine to “complete its budget at the end, at least in a situation of extreme urgency”, sums up the professor.
Financial loans granted to Ukraine in the wake of the annexation of Crimea in 2014 had been recovered by Ottawa. This time, the government could decide to waive interest or part of the loans, according to Rémi Landry.
Canada has also imposed economic sanctions on more than 1,600 people and entities close to Vladimir Putin’s regime over the past year. Sanctions which, according to the government, had a real effect in Russia, but which took time to be felt, nuance Lieutenant-Colonel Landry.
Unsurprisingly, the United States ranks well at the top of Ukraine’s most important partners – considering both military equipment, financial and humanitarian aid – with donations approaching $68 billion. The United Kingdom and Germany follow, still far ahead of Canada, with aid of 10 billion each.
Even when comparing aid as a proportion of gross domestic product (GDP), Canada comes out on top, eighth this time around, just ahead of the United States, according to the Ukraine Support Tracker. However, it is the Eastern European neighbors who sit at the top of this table. “The threat is very direct. They have a very acute sense of Russian danger, because many of them have experienced its aggression,” recalls Professor Arel.
The military to avoid the humanitarian
Added to the $369 million in humanitarian aid is the reception of thousands of refugees, as well as the creation of a special immigration visa that allows Ukrainian nationals to come and study or work in Canada for three years.
However, even if this humanitarian aid is important, it does not prevent the invasion and destruction of cities, emphasizes Dominique Arel, unlike military aid.
On the Canadian side, arms shipments could soon have reached their limits, recalls Lieutenant-Colonel Landry, who believes that the past year has “highlighted certain shortcomings in Canadian stocks”. If the Canadian army were called upon to deploy in another international conflict, it would face challenges after years of underinvestment in supplies and “penniless savings”, fears the former serviceman.