The Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, did not specify where the promised weapons would come, what would be the volume or when they would arrive.
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While Russia started the “new phase” of its intervention in Ukraine by a series of strikes in the eastern country, Canada reiterated its full and entire support in kyiv. Justin Trudeau announced Tuesday, April 19, the sending of heavy weapons to Ukrainians. “We respond to what [Ukrainians] most specifically need [and] their most recent demand is to help them with heavy artillery,” said the Canadian Prime Minister, affirming being in “close contact” with President Volodymyr Zelensky. “The Ukrainians fought like heroes in recent months,” he said, adding that “Ukrainian military is not just struggling for Ukraine, but for the values that underlie many of our societies. democratic free “.
This announcement took place after a discussion held in the morning of videoconference with the US President Joe Biden, to which the leaders of the European Union, the United Kingdom and NATO participated also. It also occurs a week after the White House has promised additional $ 800 million (€ 738 million) in kyiv.
Justin Trudeau did not specify where the promised weapons would come, what would be the volume or when the heavy artillery would end up in the hands of the Ukrainians. The Canadian federal budget, presented on April 7, provides for an envelope of $ 500 million (€ 369 million) for military, lethal and non-lethal, Ukraine – a sum adding to the 90 million previously announced. In early April, the Minister of Defense, Anita Anand, had said that Ottawa was considering the purchase of lethal arms from third-party suppliers, the stock of the Canadian Armed Forces, in which the government first drawn, being exhausted.
Refugee home
In the early hours of war, Canada had committed to sending the Ukrainian army several tons of ammunition, 7,500 grenades and about 4,500 M72 rocket launches. If certain equipment dates from the middle of the XX e century, Daniel Le Bouthillier, head of media relations with national defense, insists that these weapons remain perfectly usable, taking the Example of the Canon Antichar Carl-Gustav, “Effective against light armored platforms”.
The Canadian material effort, relatively modest, is quantitatively comparable to that of Denmark and the Netherlands, other members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. But the war in Ukraine pushed Ottawa to increase its military budget. The Minister of Finance, Chrystia Freeland, announced, in early April, during the presentation of the federal budget, additional investments of nearly $ 8 billion over five years, for a total of 41 billion, without however achieving the objective of 2% of his GDP set by NATO.
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