Canada spending $59M on assault rifles, machine guns for Ukraine
PM Trudeau also says $2.4 B loan to Ukraine has been issued
Canada plans to ship thousands of assault rifles to Ukraine — its latest military contribution to the embattled eastern European country, which is still awaiting delivery of a badly needed air defence system Ottawa promised weeks ago.
The latest federal package of military and financial assistance for Ukraine was unveiled Tuesday following a meeting between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal.
Canada is spending $59 million to procure for Ukraine 21,000 assault rifles and machine guns, along with ammunition, from weapons maker Colt Canada, headquartered in Kitchener, Ont.
WATCH | Trudeau says Canada will send thousands of assault rifles to Ukraine
Trudeau also said that a $2.4 billion loan to the government in Kyiv, announced in last month's federal budget, has been dispersed to Ukraine. The money will be used by the government of Ukraine to support essential services such as pension payments, fuel purchases and the repair of damaged energy infrastructure, the prime minister said.
Shmyhal and Trudeau also signed a joint declaration on modernizing the free trade agreement between the two countries.
They also cited a previously announced agreement involving Saskatoon-based Cameco and Ukraine's state-owned Energoatom. Cameco will supply uranium to meet the needs of Ukraine's nuclear power stations until 2035.
And the federal government also announced more sanctions on Russia and Belarus.
Ukraine's air defences in peril, documents suggest
Recently leaked documents, which appear to be U.S. intelligence assessments, suggest Ukraine's air defence network is in jeopardy and could buckle under sustained Russia missile and drone assault without an influx of munitions and equipment.
In January, Canada announced that it would buy a U.S.-made missile defence system for Ukraine. The $406 million price tag is a major portion of the roughly $1 billion in military aid the Liberal government has committed to Ukraine.
The National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System (NASAMS) has not been yet been delivered and the government has been vague on when it will get there.
"We are doing whatever is possible to get it there as soon as possible. And in fact it's being shipped in various tranches, because of course we are sending other supplies as well. So it is en route," Defence Minister Anita Anand told CBC's Power & Politics on Tuesday.
WATCH | Air defence munitions en route to Ukraine: minister's office
But an official in her office reached out to CBC News following the interview to clarify Anand's statement. The official said the air defence munitions are on their way to Ukraine — not the entire NASAMS system.
Canada apparently has reached an agreement with the United States to acquire the sophisticated ground-based launchers but has no plan at the moment for delivery, said an official who spoke on background Tuesday.
A change in Russian military tactics is driving the new sense of urgency about Ukraine's air defences.
Earlier this year, the Russian air force introduced to the conflict guided bombs — essentially regular gravity bombs that have been modified to glide to their targets after being dropped by multi-role fighter-bombers. They being used in increasing numbers to devastating effect.
The bombs are launched outside the effective ranges of Ukraine's air defences. At the moment, Ukraine has little in the way of systems to counter them. Russia has been using modified versions of 500 kilogram bombs — something they have in enormous qualities after apparently exhausting their supply of smart munitions.
"We are tired. This is natural," Shmyhal said Tuesday, while praising the military training efforts of allies, including Canada.
"We are not exhausted. We are not fatigued. We are encouraged to go ahead with the support of our partners, support of the government of Canada, the prime minister, his team ... We are sure we will win this war altogether."
On top of Shmyhal's list of requests for the Canadian government is more weapons — a critical factor right now as Ukraine plans a counter-offensive to recover territory lost to the Russians in the aftermath of the full invasion.
But there's seems to be a growing sense among Ukrainian officials that Canada's capacity and willingness to move swiftly to arm them are both finite and limited.
There was a lot of talk Tuesday during Shmyhal's visit about his meetings with business leaders about reconstruction opportunities. It is a drum Ukraine's Ambassador to Canada Yuliya Kovaliv has been quietly beating for a while, notably in a recent speech to the business community in Ottawa.
"The rebuilding of Ukraine will be massive," Kovaliv told the Canadian Club of Ottawa on March 30, 2023. She encouraged companies to begin making plans now in light of a recent World Bank report that estimated rebuilding Ukraine would cost $411 billion US.
Dominque Arel, chair of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Ottawa, said he doesn't believe the Ukrainians have given up on Canadian military aid. He noted that, proportionally, Canada is tracking close to its allies in terms of donations.
He said that Canada will never be able to match the quantity of U.S. donations and purchases and is concentrating on being useful in other ways.
But Arel also described the leaked American intelligence as a "not necessarily depressing but sobering" read. It should remind allies of how deeply vulnerable Ukraine continues to be, he said, despite its battlefield successes in holding off both the initial invasion and the recent Russian winter offensive in the eastern Donbas region.
"The one card that Putin has to play — and it's not the nuclear card — is the air force," said Arel. "The [Russian] air force has not been active in Ukraine for a year now because of the fear of getting shot down.
"But if the Ukrainians are suddenly vulnerable, the escalation — the one we don't talk about — is strategic bombing, basically what Russia has been doing in Syria."
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