Canada commits $33 million to purchase air defence gear for Ukraine

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Defence Minister Invoice Blair introduced on Sunday that Canada can be shopping for $33 million value of air defence gear for Ukraine, as that nation continues its counteroffensive in opposition to Russia.

The Canadian contribution is a part of a U.Okay.-led partnership that’s securing air defence gear for Ukraine, which is underneath menace from Russian missile and drone assaults.

“The aim of this coalition is to obtain excessive precedence air defence gear for Ukraine, together with lots of of brief and medium-range air defence missiles [and] related methods, to allow Ukraine to guard itself from Russian aggression,” Blair mentioned in the course of the announcement.

The minister mentioned the contribution was a part of the $500 million value of navy assist for Kyiv that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau introduced in June.

Canada, house to one of many world’s largest Ukrainian diasporas, is a vocal supporter of Kyiv. Since Russia invaded its neighbour in February 2022, Ottawa has dedicated greater than $8 billion in assist, together with about $1.8 billion in navy help.

The announcement was a part of Blair’s first worldwide journey as defence minister. Whereas in the UK, he visited the Lydd Navy Coaching Camp, the place Canadian troopers are stationed as a part of Operation UNIFIER, the Ukrainian coaching mission.

“The work that they are doing is one thing that each one Canadians are happy with and must be happy with, as a result of, frankly, they’re saving lives,” Blair mentioned.

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Ukraine remains to be pursuing a large-scale counteroffensive in opposition to Russian forces occupying components of the south and east. The assault has made gradual progress, though U.S. officers are actually expressing some optimism that important features might quickly be made.

Former Ukrainian defence minister Andriy Zagorodnyuk, who remains to be serving as an adviser to Ukraine, mentioned in an interview on Rosemary Barton Stay that progress was being made, although it was troublesome.

“The amount of mines is totally staggering,” he informed host Rosemary Barton.

“It’s extremely, very onerous, it goes with a lot of casualties. It is an especially troublesome endeavour, however it’s succeeding.”

Zelenskyy to go to White Home this week

The announcement comes as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is anticipated to go to Washington, D.C., to fulfill with U.S. President Joe Biden this week.

The Ukrainian chief will go to the White Home after an look on the United Nations Basic Meeting, the place he hopes to safe extra assist for his embattled nation.

Canada’s ambassador to the United Nations, Bob Rae, informed Barton in a separate interview that it stays incumbent on the worldwide group to make sure that Ukraine is armed and in a position to defend itself — although he mentioned the UN was not the principle discussion board for that dialogue.

“No person would really like a shorter battle higher than President Zelenskyy. The one subject is does he have the means to do it,” Rae mentioned. “The fact is that the Ukrainians have suffered tremendously underneath horrible aggression from the Russians, and I feel they’ve completed an impressive job responding to this battle, this aggression.”

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