(Ottawa) Fear of an outbreak of armed conflict in Ukraine is prompting the Canadian government to repatriate family members of diplomats serving on Ukrainian soil.
Posted at 10:01 a.m.
Updated at 10:31 a.m.
Global Affairs Canada made the announcement Tuesday morning in a press release.
“Due to the current Russian military deployment and destabilizing activities in and around Ukraine, we have made the decision to temporarily withdraw children under the age of 18 of Canadian Embassy employees and their family members who accompany,” reads the ministry’s statement.
“Officials from Global Affairs Canada and the Embassy of Canada to Ukraine in Kyiv will continue to monitor the situation,” the statement also said.
Canada is thus following in the footsteps of some of its allies, including the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia, which was greeted with circumspection by the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, who invited not “dramatize”.
The Ukrainian authorities have also deemed Washington’s decision concerning their diplomatic representation “premature” and “excessive”. For its part, Moscow denounced a “hysteria” and accused the United States and NATO “of exacerbating tensions through announcements and concrete actions”.
Canada is also continuing to explore the option of shipping weapons to Kiev, again to follow suit in Washington and London. The Council of Ministers, which is in closed virtual retirement until Wednesday, is looking into this file.
The Trudeau government is also considering the possibility of inflating the ranks of the approximately 200 soldiers who are on Ukrainian soil for the Unifier training mission, as well as the extension of this operation expiring in March.
On this subject, the announcement is possibly telegraphed by an excerpt from the mandate letter of the Minister of Defense, Anita Anand, where it is written that she will have to “increase[er] Canada’s support to Ukraine through Operation Unifier”.
The Pentagon has placed up to 8,500 military personnel on high alert, spokesman John Kirby said Monday. This level of alert makes it possible to prepare the troops to be ready to leave in five days rather than ten. These troops would operate in NATO countries in Eastern Europe, but not in Ukraine.
With Agence France-Presse