Having given firm political support to Ukraine ever since Russia stole Crimea and launched its war in the Donbas in 2014, Canada’s government is coming under increasing pressure at home back up its words with weapons.
Opposition Conservative Party of Canada lawmaker James Bezan on June 18 called for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Labor government to provide Ukraine with a lethal defensive package worth $9.5 million.
“That is sniper rifles, scopes, C6 machine guns operated by the Canadian military, Carl Gustav anti-tank guns, mortars, night vision devices, and certain medical hardware,” Bezan said.
“Weakness provokes” Russian President Vladimir Putin, he added. “And as long as Ukraine lacks weapons to defend its own borders, Putin will go on pressing. And only if we provide the necessary lethal weapons to the Ukrainian army, we will be able to see Putin withdrawing from Donbas.”
Canada remains among Ukraine’s strongest supporters – both in terms of its strong diplomatic support and defense aid for the country’s reforming army.
Since 2014, the Armed Forces and law enforcing agencies have received Canadian non-lethal military hardware worth a total of at least $24 million, according to Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense.
Canadian aid has helped to equip Ukrainian soldiers and officers with armored vests, helmets, night vision scopes, radio sets, and mine defusing kits in the wake of Russia’s attack on Donbas.
Also, Canada has provided at least 30,000 winter combat uniforms to Ukraine at no cost.
Trudeau’s government avoids making clear statements regarding the provision of lethal hardware while vowing to continue supporting Ukraine at the strategic level.
But this year, the military partnership between Ottawa in Kyiv may eventually lead to the supplying of lethal weaponry, against the backdrop of the decision by the United States to supply Kyiv with Javelin anti-tank systems.
On Dec. 13, the Canadian government added Ukraine to the Automatic Firearms Country Control List, a special register of countries to which the Canadian arms exporters are allowed to sell arms. The decision revoked a de-facto Canadian arms embargo on Ukraine that had been in force for the 26 years since the country became independent in 1991.
However, future arms sales will depend on how successful is Ukraine in pushing forward with reforms. Along with recommendations start to providing Ukraine with lethal weaponry, the Canadian Committee of National Defense advised the House of Commons to authorize the transfers in case of “Ukraine actively fighting corruption at all levels of government.”
