Canada Announces New Aid for Ukraine: Weapons and Training

The Government of Canada has announced providing additional military assistance to Ukraine, including other ammunition and expanding the training programme for the Ukrainian military.

According to government's statement, Canada's new aid was announced after the 12th meeting of the Contact Group on the Defence of Ukraine, known as the Ramstein format. 

Anita Anand, Defence Minister, announced that Canada would send five more tactical medicine instructors to Poland in addition to the seven who are already training the Ukrainian military there. 

"These additional CAF members will double the number of potential Ukrainian graduates," the communiqué says. 

In addition, as part of Operation UNIFIER, Canadian and Latvian instructors have been training low-level commanders together since 15 May. 

Since the beginning of the full-scale war, Canadian instructors have trained more than 2,400 Ukrainian soldiers, and more than 36,000 since the start of the operation in 2015. 

In addition, Anita Anand announced the provision of 43 AIM-9 air-to-air missiles, noting that this will help Ukraine defend itself from air attacks. 

The minister also confirmed that the batch of small arms and ammunition promised in April had been partially delivered and that the rest would arrive soon. 

In particular, machine guns, automatic rifles, weapon cleaning supplies and magazines are already in Ukraine. Another million 5.56 mm rounds and 4,800 assault rifles will be delivered "next week". 

Anita Anand also recalled that Canada helps transport military aid from other Western allies, and its military transport planes have already delivered more than 4,000 tonnes of such cargo. 

Since the beginning of 2022, Canada has provided Ukraine with assistance worth more than US$8 billion, and the share of military assistance in it is more than US$1 billion. Among those provided are eight Leopard 2A4 tanks and one armoured repair vehicle, NASAMS air defence system and shots fired at it, 39 armoured vehicles, anti-tank weapons, small arms, M777 howitzers and ammunition, high-resolution drone cameras, winter uniforms for fighters, and more.

After the 12th meeting of the Ramstein format, the head of the Pentagon announced that the United States and other members of the Contact Group to support Ukraine pledged to allocate military aid totalling US$65 billion.