(Ottawa) The last commander of Canada’s training mission in Ukraine says Russia’s decision to impose sanctions on many of his predecessors and shows him that it has had positive results.
Posted at 5:09 p.m.
Lieutenant-Colonel Luc-Frédéric Gilbert is one of the six commanders of Operation Unifier aimed at training Ukrainian troops. Like dozens of Canadians, he was sanctioned by Russia.
According to the federal government, Operation Unifier has trained more than 30,000 Ukrainian soldiers since 2015. Many of them are currently fighting to defend their country against Russian invasion.
Mr. Gilbert told The Canadian Press that he was proud of the work done by the Canadian military in Ukraine. They left that country less than two weeks before Russia launched its military operations there.
Among the other officers targeted by sanctions are Lieutenant-Colonels Sarah Heer and Melanie Lake, who agree with their colleague that this represents confirmation of the value of their mission.
Canada launched Operation Unifier in 2015 in response to Russia’s forcible annexation of Crimea as well as Russia’s military support for separatist militias in eastern Ukraine.
The objective of the mission evolved over time before it was suspended. It was mainly aimed at transforming the Ukrainian army of the post-Soviet era into a modern defense capable of protecting the country.
According to the federal government, more than 33,000 Ukrainian soldiers received training from Canada during this mission.
Luc-Frédéric Gilbert was on the ground when Ottawa decided to evacuate its 250 soldiers to Poland. If he understands the manoeuvre, the officer says that it was difficult for them to leave Ukraine, since they are trained to fight and not to flee a conflict.
Canada and its Western allies have been very clear about not deploying troops to Ukraine so as not to escalate matters and trigger a global conflict between Russia and NATO. The allied states preferred to provide financial aid and military equipment to Ukrainian soldiers in addition to imposing sanctions to harm Russia.
Lieutenant-Colonel Gilbert reports that the awareness of a real threat from Russia to Ukraine did not arise until the end of January. But there again, the Ukrainians did not really believe in it until the departure of the Canadian troops.
In mid-February, an officer of the Ukrainian National Guard allegedly told Mr. Gilbert that they would “see each other again soon because nothing is going to happen”.
“At that time, I was sure something was going to happen. He was sure that wouldn’t happen. Unfortunately, I was right,” he said.
All 250 soldiers under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Gilbert have returned to Canada. Another group of 150 Canadian Armed Forces members went to Poland to help that country welcome the millions of Ukrainian refugees who fled the Russian invasion.
Mr. Gilbert himself returned to the Valcartier base, where he leads the 5and Combat Engineer Regiment. However, he remains technically in command of Operation Unifier, put on hold, but officially active until March 2025.
Among Canadian improvements to Ukrainian forces, previous commanders of Operation Unifier said they helped make units more agile by trusting and empowering soldiers lower down the chain of command so they could take decisions.
This allowed the Ukrainians to defend several fronts at once and to react in ways that were unexpected in the eyes of Russia. In particular, they were able to deploy small units that could neutralize Russian tanks and other maneuvers of the invader.
Lieutenant-Colonel Gilbert confirms this analysis by saying that in addition to sniper training, small unit deployment tactics are the best example of the Canadian contribution.