Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said Canada is extending its mission to train Ukrainian soldiers for three years. Ottawa will also expand the mission, known as Operation Unifier.
As part of the $340 million commitment, he authorized the Canadian Armed Forces to deploy 60 personnel to join the 200 soldiers already on the ground, with a possibility of increasing that number to 400.
This support to Ukraine also includes a supply of non-lethal equipment, intelligence sharing and support to counter cyberattacks, he said.
Mr. Trudeau explained that this guarantees the continued support of the Armed Forces to the Ukrainian forces so that the country can defend its sovereignty, its security and its territorial integrity.
Ottawa announced last week that Canada was providing Ukraine with a $120 million loan aimed at “strengthening the economy” of the country in the face of persistent threats from Moscow.
Russia has positioned around 100,000 troops along the Ukrainian border, along with tanks and other heavy artillery, raising fears across Europe and the NATO military alliance of an invasion, which Russia denied.
Defense Minister Anita Anand will travel to Latvia and Ukraine to visit the Canadian Forces in the coming days.
Ukrainian Canadians and the government in Kiev called for the extension of the Canadian military training mission in Ukraine beyond the end of March.
Export control?
The Cabinet of Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government met amid growing pressure on the Prime Minister to take further action against Moscow in the Ukraine-Russia crisis.
Senior White House officials on Tuesday discussed some of the options for countering any further Russian incursion into Ukraine. Moscow “annexed” the Crimean peninsula in 2014 and backed pro-Russian separatist rebels in Ukraine’s eastern region, a crisis that left thousands dead.
Canada could thus join its NATO allies in imposing export controls on Russia, in order to deprive Moscow of sensitive technology linked to artificial intelligence – a measure strongly considered by the United States.
A US official explained that these export controls are effective because they capitalize on “the global dominance of US-made software, technologies and devices” that extend to artificial intelligence, defence, aerospace and other sectors.
“The export control options that we are considering alongside our allies and partners would clash quite severely with Putin’s strategic ambitions to industrialize his economy,” the US official said. And that would hurt sectors that are key for him. »
Three Conservative MPs in Ottawa called on the Liberal government on Tuesday to redirect weapons originally intended for Kurdish peshmerga fighters in northern Iraq to Ukraine.
The closed-door meeting of the Trudeau cabinet in Ottawa on Wednesday takes place in a much larger context of discussions in Paris. The main advisers from Russia, France, Germany and Ukraine – known as the “Normandy format” – met on Wednesday to reduce tensions and find a solution to this crisis.
Ottawa emulated its British and American allies on Tuesday by ordering the families of its embassy staff in Ukraine to leave the country.
The day before, Global Affairs had updated its warning to Canadian travelers. “Avoid all non-essential travel to Ukraine due to current threats from Russia and its military deployment in and around the country, Ottawa now recommends. If you are in Ukraine, you should assess whether your presence is essential. »
Further details will follow.