TSAMTO, May 29. According to the Ministry of Defense of Canada, the country's Defense Minister Anita Anand took part in the 12th meeting of the Contact Group on Defense of Ukraine (UDCG), chaired by U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin.
During the meeting, the allies and partners discussed the current situation in Ukraine and reaffirmed their commitment to support it for as long as necessary by providing comprehensive military assistance to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Thus, A.Anand announced that Canada is expanding its presence in Poland as part of Operation UNIFIER. In particular, another group of medical instructors of the Canadian Armed Forces will be sent to Poland.
As part of Operation UNIFIER, the Armed Forces of Canada and Latvia have already started a refresher course for junior officers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on May 15. Since the beginning of Operation UNIFIER in 2015, the Canadian Armed Forces have trained more than 36 thousand employees of the security forces of Ukraine, including 2,400 people since February 2022.
In total, more than 300 Canadian Armed Forces personnel are currently involved in the UNIFER training mission.
The Minister also announced that Canada is transferring 43 AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air guided missiles from the Armed Forces to Ukraine.
As stated, the delivery of the packages of small arms and ammunition announced in April is on schedule. Submachine guns, machine guns, cleaning kits for personal weapons and magazines have been delivered to Ukraine, and in the coming weeks it is planned to deliver 1 million 5.56 mm cartridges and 4,800 assault rifles. It is expected that by the summer the entire batch of 21 thousand units of small arms and 2.4 million cartridges will be on the territory of Ukraine.
The Canadian Air Force has currently transported more than nine million pounds of military aid transferred by Canada, as well as by European allies and partners of Ukraine.
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Canada, since the beginning of 2022, Canada has provided assistance to Ukraine in the amount of more than $ 8 billion, including more than $ 1 billion. in the form of military aid. This includes eight main battle tanks "Leopard-2A4" and one armored recovery vehicle, NASAMS SAM with ammunition, 39 armored combat support vehicles ACSV (Armored Combat Support Vehicle) with a wheel formula of 8x8, anti-tank weapons, small arms, M777 howitzers with ammunition, high-resolution cameras for UAVs, winter uniforms and others .