New Pathway.
There are just five weeks left before Canada's military training mission in Ukraine, Operation UNIFIER, concludes on March 31, 2017. But, despite the fact that UNIFIER's prolongation has been actively discussed ever since Prime Minister Trudeau's visit to Ukraine in July 2016, the government has not yet decided whether to extend the mission.
Currently, 200 Canadian Armed Forces personnel are providing the Ukrainian military with different types of training, from tactical training to logistics modernization. The mission started in September 2015 and has since trained over 3,100 Ukrainian soldiers. During his stay in Ukraine, Justin Trudeau visited the Operation's main site at the Yavoriv grounds in western Ukraine. During the visit, Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko personally asked Canada’s Prime Minister to prolong the mission beyond March 2017.
As the mission is nearing its end, the calls on the government to renew UNIFIER are intensifying. In February, the Ukrainian Canadian Congress encouraged Canadians to write to their MPs and Prime Minister of Canada to express support for continuing the mission. Several prominent opposition MPs, including Peter Kent, the Official Opposition Critic for Foreign Affairs, James Bezan, the Official Opposition Critic for National Defence, and former Minister of National Defence, Jason Kenney, have called on the government to continue the mission and also to restore the sharing of RADARSAT satellite images with Ukraine (which was terminated by the current government in March 2016).
In his interview for the New Pathway on February 17, Ukraine's Consul General in Toronto, Andrii Veselovskyi, said “Everyone seems to be satisfied with UNIFIER, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visited Yavoriv last year and was delighted with the mission. But the talks about its prolongation have been going on for many months and there is no decision yet, which raises the question, why?”
In turn, Canada's Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan said in early February that “The decision [on UNIFIER] will be made soon to demonstrate our commitment to Ukraine.” Speaking in Parliament on February 7, Liberal MP Borys Wrzesnewskyj expressed his personal dedication to ensure that Canada will continue and expand UNIFIER and said “The Minister of National Defence last week signalled that the odds are that this training mission will be extended. My personal hope is that it will be expanded.”
According to Jordan Owens, Press Secretary at the Office of the Minister of National Defence, on February 6, Minister Sajjan met with US Secretary of Defence James Mattis and discussed, in particular, the importance of both nations’ training missions in Ukraine. On February 16, Minister Sajjan attended a meeting of the five principal nations currently providing assistance to Ukraine’s defence and security forces (Canada, Lithuania, Poland, the UK and the US). Minister Sajjan updated partners about the progress CAF members are having in training of Ukrainian soldiers and reiterated that Canada is unwavering in its support to Ukraine.
Share on Social Media
