OTTAWA-
Defense Minister Anita Anand is expected to announce that the Canadian Armed Forces will begin training Ukrainian soldiers in a third country.
The move comes nearly six months after Canada suspended its previous training mission in Ukraine just weeks before Russian forces invaded the country.
It also follows the return on Sunday of 150 Canadian troops who were first deployed to Poland in April to help deal with a flood of Ukrainian refugees crossing the border.
A senior government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss matters not yet made public, told The Canadian Press that the new mission will include a significant number of troops and build on the military aid that Canada has. already granted to Ukraine.
This includes training Ukrainian forces on how to use the four M777 howitzers that Canada donated earlier this year, as well as cyber assistance through Canada’s electronic spy agency, the telecommunications security.
Canada first launched a mission, along with Britain and the United States, to help train the Ukrainian army after Moscow ordered the annexation of the Crimean peninsula in 2014 and began supporting the pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.
The federal government says the mission, known as Operation Unifier, helped train more than 30,000 Ukrainian soldiers before all Canadian troops were evacuated ahead of the Russian invasion.
While the trainers have finally returned home, Canada has expanded the size of its military presence in Europe in response to the current war, now in its sixth month.
This includes the 150 soldiers who recently returned from Poland and the reinforcement of a Canadian-led NATO battle group in Latvia.
In April, Russia sanctioned the six former Operation Unifier commanders, which some saw as proof of the mission’s success.
This report from The Canadian Press was first published on August 4, 2022
ctvnews
