Canada’s Minister of National Defence Bill Blair speaks to the media on the day of the NATO defence ministers’ meeting at the Alliance’s headquarters in Brussels, Belgium June 13, 2024. REUTERS
Canada plans to start sending a total of about 2,000 surplus unarmed rockets to
Ukraine and a selection of other weapons, Defence Minister Bill Blair said on Thursday.
Bill Blair made the announcement in Brussels at a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contract Group, which includes about 50 allied countries led by the United States.
Canadian specialists have spent the last few months ensuring the safe operation of the rockets, which do not have warheads, he said in a statement.
Canada does plan to eventually ship some warheads to Ukraine, a spokeswoman for Blair said separately via email, but did not give details.
Canada is also sending 29 German-made remotely controlled weapon stations that can be attached to a variety of armored vehicles as well as 130,000 rounds of small arms ammunition.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Canada has committed over C$14 billion ($10.2 billion) in total assistance to Kyiv, including C$4 billion in military aid.
In May, Yuliya Kovaliv, Ukraine’s ambassador to Canada, told a Senate committee that Ukraine has learned to repair donated weapons.
“We have limited resources, so we are asking the Department of National Defence … if there is anything that is to be decommissioned — even if you think it’s in bad shape for your Canadian soldiers — we are ready to take it,” she said.
“The choices we have are either the people who don’t have anything on the front line can be killed or we can repair this equipment and use it for a really good purpose.”
(With inputs From Reuters)
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Publish date : 2024-06-13 05:44:39
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