2024-03-05T15:56:00+02:00 Politics 2024-09-15T04:37:43+03:00

Ukrainian news

Canada will consider sending military instructors to Ukraine

Canada will consider sending military instructors to Ukraine

Canada will consider sending military instructors to Ukraine if "certain conditions" are met. However, these conditions are "do not yet exist."

Canadian Defense Minister Bill Blair has stated this, Global News reports.

According to him, any Canadian military will be sent only to perform "non-combat" functions.

The Minister of Defense stressed that conditions in Ukraine should "change" before Canadian troops can return to the country, where they trained Ukrainian soldiers on the ground prior to the russian invasion.

"Right now, circumstances are not appropriate for that training to take place in Ukraine, but we’re going to continue to train," Blair said.

Canada trained more than 40,000 Ukrainian soldiers as part of Operation Unifier, which began in 2015 after the occupation of Crimea by russia. However, after the russian invasion, the Canadian military moved its training operations to the United Kingdom, Latvia and Poland.

"We have had a number of discussions with Ukrainians that suggest when the conditions are right, we may be able to return," Blair said.

Leaving the possibility of a return to Ukraine open, Blair stressed that "the Canadian Armed Forces cannot have any combat role or what could be perceived as a combat role.”

Recall that in February, Blair said that Canada does not plan to send troops to Ukraine.