After months of requests for military assistance from the Ukrainian government, Stephen Harper has announced Canada will join a training mission to help Ukraine's beleaguered military in their struggle against Russian-backed rebels.
The prime minister made the announcement at a staged photo call at the defence department and took no questions. Defence Minister Jason Kenney and Chief of Defence Staff Tom Lawson faced reporters later.
A press release said 200 troops will be deployed "on both a sustained and periodic basis" until March 31, 2017, to "develop and deliver military training and capacity-building programs for Ukrainian forces personnel." It's intended to start this summer, the release says.
Canada's British and American allies are already in Ukraine conducting training missions of their own.
Canadian forces are expected to help with explosive ordnance disposal and improvised explosive device disposal training, military police training, medical training, flight safety training, and logistics system modernization training.
Some of the IED skills Canada will pass on were painfully learned during the five-year combat mission in Kandahar, Afghanistan.
The release also says Canada will provide individual and unit tactics training to Ukrainian National Guard personnel as part of a mission led by Americans.
Newly mobilized Ukrainian paratroopers carry an anti-tank grenade launcher during a military drill near Zhytomyr on April 9. Canadian troops could soon be joining U.S. and British forces training the Ukrainian military. (Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters)
The U.S. military has deployed 800 troops to train three — possibly four — battalions in western Ukraine and the British recently sent 75 soldiers to give instruction in command procedures, tactical intelligence and battlefield first aid.
Defence sources say that this deployment will see Canadian soldiers working and housed far away from the battle taking place on the eastern side of the country. Canadian soldiers will be stationed in an existing NATO training centre located in Yavoriv, near the Polish border.
Training will also take place at the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence Demining Centre in Kamyanets-Podilsky in western Ukraine.
Canada's mission is another attempt to push back against the Russian regime of President Vladimir Putin.
Both Washington and Ottawa have been under pressure to ship lethal military aid to President Petro Poroshenko's government, which has been struggling to hold a shaky ceasefire together with rebels.
The Pentagon delayed the training program for Ukrainian soldiers last month to avoid giving the Kremlin an excuse to scrap the peace deal struck in February.
There have been widespread reports in the last week that Russian-backed separatists are preparing for a spring offensive in the southern region, a sign the conflict could re-ignite.
Russia could very well consider the deployment of NATO trainers as a provocation at a time when it has rattled most of Europe with massive, snap military exercises along its borders involving tens of thousands of troops.
It strikes at the heart of the dilemma faced by Western leaders: how to stop Russian President Vladimir Putin's slow-motion dismemberment of Ukraine without provoking a major war.
The announcement of Canada's participation comes just days after Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves told a British newspaper that he was in favour of NATO deterring Russia with the permanent stationing of combat units in the Baltic states.
Four Canadian CF-18s took part in NATO air policing missions to protect the Baltic States last year, and a company of soldiers belonging to the Royal Canadian Regiment are currently involved in exercises in the region.
In February, Defence Minister Jason Kenney said Canada was "actively considering different options for engaging" in the emerging training mission, but he also said Canada would and could not act alone in supplying lethal weapons to bolster Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's government.
The Canadian Press reported in December that a small team of fewer than 10 soldiers travelled to Ukraine to look for training opportunities with Ukrainian forces in the areas of military police, medical personnel and "personal protective measures." Officials did not characterize the very small number of troops as a pre-deployment team.
"There are a number that have come and gone in support of various missions and the military police, they're coming, they will be here for a deployment and then they will leave. This is a continuing effort," then-defence minister Rob Nicholson told reporters.
Tuesday's training mission is in addition to the help offered to Ukraine in the past through Canada's military training and cooperation program, the press release said.
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