War in Ukraine | Canadian military aid reaches 90 million

Since 2015, Canada’s military assistance to Ukraine has reached $90 million, the bulk of which, around $67.5 million, has been provided since the beginning of February 2022.

Andre Duchesne
The Press

This aid takes the form of the donation of lethal and non-lethal weapons given by the Department of National Defense (DND) and the Canadian Armed Forces to Ukraine, but also to NATO and their regional partners, according to press releases. releases issued by Ottawa.

What exactly is Canada giving to Ukraine? The equipment is very varied.

In terms of lethal weapons, the country recently announced that it will hand over up to 4,500 M72 rocket launchers, around 100 Carl Gustaf M2 recoilless anti-armour rifles (bazookas) with sighting accessories and 2,000 84 mm, up to 7,500 hand grenades, so-called 7.62 mm C6 general-purpose submachine guns, C9A2 light submachine guns, pistols, carbines, sniper rifles with silencers as well as 1.5 million ammunition .

As The Press reported in a previous article, Carl Gustaf M2 anti-armour rifles are not very new technology, but they are still considered very effective by experts in the field. They come from “current army stocks,” DND tells us in an email exchange.

In addition, the other weapons are new equipment in stock, continues the Canadian army in the same email.

Rations and other non-lethal equipment

In addition to these lethal weapons, there is a whole series of non-lethal equipment, including 390,000 individual combat rations, nearly 1,600 flak jackets, night vision equipment, helmets, gas masks, detection equipment And many other things.

The most recent Canadian contribution, announced on March 9 by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, consists of Canadian-made L3Harris Wescam cameras for surveillance drones.

An article published the same day in theottawa citizen indicated that these cameras had previously been sold to Turkey, but that the Canadian government canceled the transaction in April 2021 after discovering that they were used by drones from Azerbaijan in its armed conflict against Armenia in the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.

DND replies that these cameras, “it’s new”. “It is a purchase of new specialized equipment which is in progress”, we were told.