(Ottawa) Members of the Canadian Armed Forces based in Kiev, Ukraine, will be relocated elsewhere in Europe due to the threat of a Russian invasion.
Posted at 1:30 p.m.
The Department of National Defense announced on Sunday that the temporary relocation of some of the Operation Unifier soldiers was necessary given the “complex operating environment” on the ground.
The soldiers are relocated “elsewhere in Europe”, the ministry said in a press release. Neither the number of soldiers displaced nor their location are disclosed, for reasons of personnel and operational security.
This relocation does not mean the end of the mission, “but rather allows us to refocus our efforts while ensuring the safety of the members of the Armed Forces”, and the Canadian government remains “committed to the Ukrainian people and their mission to increase the capabilities of the Security Forces of Ukraine,” it says.
Canada is following in the footsteps of the United States, which on Saturday ordered the repositioning of the 160 soldiers who were also training the Ukrainian security forces. Washington had again warned, the day before, that a Russian invasion was imminent – a desire that the Kremlin has denied for weeks.
The Trudeau government announced on January 26 the deployment of 60 soldiers “in a few days to join the approximately 200 women and men already on the ground, with an additional capacity to increase the number of people on the ground up to 400” in in support of the Ukrainian ally.
The Canadian government had also imitated the Biden administration diplomatically on Saturday.
Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly announced the temporary cessation of activities at the Ottawa embassy in Kyiv, and the relocation of its operations to a temporary office in Lviv, in the west of the country, citing “the deterioration of the security situation”, due to Russian military maneuvers.
“Canadians should continue to avoid all travel to Ukraine. We urge those who are currently in the country to leave now, ”insisted the head of Canadian diplomacy in a press release on Saturday.