LVIV OBLAST - Canadian soldiers will train Ukrainian military personnel and will be stationed in Ukraine for a training exercise held from September 2015 until March 2017, Canadian National Defense Minister Jason T. Kenney has said.
Nearly 200 Canadian soldiers will be in Ukraine for the training exercise from September 2015 until March 2017, Kenney told journalists at Yavoriv training range in Lviv Oblast on Saturday.
According to him, around 150 Canadian soldiers will be stationed at Yavoriv training range, where a tactical and firing exercise will be held, and around 30 of them will conduct training on handling explosives in Kamianets-Podilsky (Khmelnytsky Oblast). The rest will be located in Kyiv and other cities, where training exercises on medical help, flight security, logistics and military law enforcement will be held.
According to the minister, the Canadian soldiers expect to receive a license to take a certain amount of weapons with them, however he failed to elaborate on what kinds of weaponry will be brought.
The cost of the project is nearly $16 million.
In turn, Ukrainian Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak said such training programs were important for the Ukrainian Armed Forces as it wants to bring its standards in line with NATO’s soon.
On Saturday, Poltorak said that the exercise would allow Ukrainian soldiers to acquire knowledge in accordance with NATO standards, and Canadian instructors would be able to learn from Ukrainian experience gained during military action in the Anti-Terrorist Operation zone.
According to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s press service, the draft of a technical agreement between the Ukrainian and Canadian defense ministries on the military training in Ukraine is currently being worked on.
Poltorak and Kenney visited Yavoriv training range on June 27.
