Canada and its government are known for their pro-Ukrainian stance and criticism of Russia. It is, therefore, surprising that, unlike many other countries, Ottawa has chosen not to give Ukraine lethal weapons.

In his article Trudeau Changed His Mind: Why Canada Has Not Provided Ukraine with Lethal Weapons, vice-principal of the Ukrainian Catholic University Dmytro Sherengovky explains the reasons behind this move, and sheds light on what could make Ottawa change its mind.

Canada has supported Ukraine in many different venues, including the UN voting and IMF negotiations. Since 2014, it has given Ukraine close to $900 million to strengthen multiple areas, including development, humanitarian aid, financial support, peace and stabilization processes, and law enforcement reforms. 

The country supplies Ukraine with non-lethal weapons and has introduced sanctions against Russian citizens and companies. Meanwhile, Canadian soldiers continuously train their Ukrainian counterparts.

Despite all this help, Ottawa has not provided Kyiv with the lethal weapons it currently needs.

On January 18th, in a joint briefing with her Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada Mélanie Joly assured Kyiv that it will do so soon. Yet, just a week later, on January 26th, Canada’s PM Justin Trudeau had a change of heart. Instead of supplying Ukraine with weapons, he decided to enlarge the pool of financial help within the existing programs, provide more means of defense for Ukrainian soldiers, and extend the Unifier military training.

This announcement came as a surprise to Ukraine’s government and its diaspora in Canada (which has lobbied the decision) as well as some Canadian politicians.

The catch is that although Canada is indeed pro-Ukrainian, its liberal government struggles to supply or sell lethal weapons to Kyiv because of its political promise to promote peace worldwide. Accordingly, it does not wish that others use their weapons in military conflicts.

Even though this issue is already highly regulated – and Canada has a limited number of countries on its Automatic Firearms Country Control List – it has still become problematic in recent years.

Read more in Mr. Sherengovsky’s article in Ukrainian Trudeau Changed His Mind: Why Canada Has Not Provided Ukraine with Lethal Weapons.