(Ottawa) Ukrainian troops are using improvised medical equipment on the battlefield because they don’t have what they need to treat and transport the wounded, the officer in charge of medical training for the Ukrainian army said Sunday. UNIFY operation.
Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland and Defense Minister Bill Blair visited the Polish Armed Forces Military Medical Training Center on Sunday, where Canadian troops are helping train Ukrainian soldiers as medics in Operation UNIFY.
As they passed through the base, just a few hours from Warsaw, the sound of a small explosion marked the start of a realistic demonstration of the medical and tactical skills that Ukrainian troops learn in their training.
Ukrainian troops simulated a real battle by removing their wounded comrade from a tank and using a tourniquet to stop his bleeding. Then they loaded him onto a stretcher and carried him into an armored ambulance.
However, few of these measures would be possible with the materials and equipment these soldiers will have on the ground, Maj. Heath Robson told Mme Freeland, as she watched the exercise.
Although the training is excellent, the Ukrainians “don’t have the tools or the lifesaving kit they need to do this good job,” said Robson, who oversees the medical training mission.
“They need to improvise a lot, to the point that they even use doors, like house doors, to use as stretchers, for example. »
Operation UNIFIER began in 2015 and trained approximately 40,000 Ukrainian military and security personnel in battlefield tactics and advanced military skills.
Canada deployed military medics to Poland to train Ukrainian troops in March 2023, and so far 248 Ukrainians have graduated from the 30-day program.
Mme Freeland and Minister Blair visited the base after arriving in Poland from Ukraine, where they marked the second anniversary of the Russian invasion on Saturday with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
PHOTO NATHAN DENETTE, THE CANADIAN PRESS
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is in Warsaw accompanied by Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland and Defense Minister Bill Blair.
On Saturday in Kyiv, Mr. Trudeau promised 320 million in new military spending as part of a long-term security agreement with Ukraine.
However, at the military base in Poland on Sunday, Mr Blair admitted there were difficulties in providing Ukraine with what it needs.
For example, he asked his Ukrainian counterpart how else the Canadian government could help when its donation of an air defense system faces indefinite delays.
Placing air defense systems on the battlefield is the top priority, Ukraine’s president says, but the 406 million surface-to-air missile system promised by Canada a year ago has still not been delivered – and we don’t know exactly when it will be.
“The question we asked [à l’Ukraine] is what we can provide, because the need is urgent and we are prepared to be flexible in providing Ukraine with what it needs,” Blair said.
Canada announced the donation of an advanced national surface-to-air missile system, known as NASAMS, in January 2023. Canada purchased the system as part of a coalition with the United States, but it there were “challenges” with the contract.
According to Mr. Trudeau’s office, the Canadian Prime Minister is to have separate meetings on Monday with the President of Poland, Andrzej Duda, and his Polish counterpart, Donald Tusk.
The Polish government wants to ensure that Canada and its other allies remain engaged in the war raging across its border, Canada’s ambassador to the country, Catherine Godin, said before the meeting.
The war represents a real and present threat to the Polish people, she said.
“They look at photos of cities in Ukraine and think about Warsaw, how it was 90% razed after the [Seconde Guerre mondiale] “, she said.
“So it feels very real. It seems very personal to them. »
Mme Freeland, a Canadian of Ukrainian origin, paid her personal tribute to the thirty Ukrainian soldiers who underwent rigorous training, as well as to their Polish and Canadian teachers.
“I am absolutely sure that together, with our support, Ukraine will win and Putin will lose,” Ms.me Freeland in Ukrainian.
Covered in fake blood and real sweat, the Ukrainian trainees responded with a resounding battle cry: “Slava Ukraini,” meaning glory to Ukraine.
The leader of the Bloc Québécois, Yves-François Blanchet, criticized the Trudeau government’s decisions regarding the war in Ukraine.
“After two years, Canada can only offer hugs, visits that primarily serve the Trudeau government, fewer weapons than the allies, less money than the allies, and wallow in a military policy and weak diplomacy, without scope, without respect by the international community, without sustainable investments and without progress towards its obligations,” wrote the Bloc leader in a publication on the social network