Ukraine takes plea for more weapons directly to Canada's defence sector
Ukraine's defence minister bypassed the Canadian gov‐ ernment Wednesday and took his country's plea for more sophisticated weapons directly to Cana‐ da's defence manufactur‐ ers.
Through a video state‐ ment, Oleksiy Reznikov told the audience assembled for Canada's largest defence ex‐ position that his country has urgent military equipment needs that must be filled.
"Hence, we count on Cana‐ da's long-term support in this area," Reznikov told the Cana‐ dian Association of Defence and Security's (CADSI) annual trade show (CANSEC).
"Ukraine has given a list of their Canadian products and technologies it needs to the Canadian government."
Ukraine, he said, wants to work in partnership with Canada and its defence con‐ tractors to make sure the hardware is "available to us when we need [it] and in the quantities we require."
His appeal comes as the federal government strug‐ gles to get badly needed equipment to the Canadian Army in Europe and faces complaints from soldiers about the age and quality of their weapons and protective equipment.
Canada has donated over $1 billion worth of military hardware to Ukraine, includ‐ ing lightly-armoured patrol vehicles, a sophisticated air defence system, older antitank weapons, Leopard 2 main battle tanks and 155 mil‐ limetre howitzers. Not all of the equipment has been de‐ livered yet.
While Reznikov expressed gratitude to Canada in his re‐ marks, Ukrainian officials in Kyiv have privately expressed frustration at the pace of de‐ liveries and have lobbied Canada behind closed doors to set up a more structured system and to give Ukraine di‐ rect access to the Canadian defence establishment.
The Ukrainian defence minister also laid down a marker in his speech, saying he hopes the coming reset of Canada's defence poli‐ cy — which the Liberal gov‐
ernment has been working on for more than a year — will in‐ clude an ongoing commit‐ ment to his country.
"We expect that [a] sub‐ stantial volume of technical assistance to Ukraine will be provided within the frame‐ work of the defence policy re‐ view, which is scheduled to be released in July," he said.
'Ukraine is Europe's shield'
On that point, Reznikov may be getting out ahead of his Canadian counterpart.
The Liberal government hasn't said when the policy will be published. It faces in‐ ternational pressure to have some kind of plan in place be‐ fore the NATO leaders' sum‐ mit in Vilnius in mid-July — a meeting that is being charac‐ terized already as an impor‐ tant milestone for the al‐ liance.
"Ukraine is now perform‐ ing the mission that NATO was created for. Ukraine is Eu‐ rope's shield in the east from the Russian threat. We are de‐ stroying the military power that was targeting European values and freedoms," Reznikov said. "Fewer Russian weapons means fewer Russ‐ ian influences."
He went on to remind the audience that "the decisions made by us today will influ‐ ence the development of Eu‐ ropean and global security for the years to come."
Reznikov also made a pitch for closer cooperation between Canadian and Ukrainian defence contrac‐ tors.
Defence Minister Anita Anand, who opened the an‐ nual CANSEC conference with a keynote address, was not present for Reznikov's speech. She was asked whether Ukraine had present‐ ed a specific list of Canadian high-tech equipment it would like to acquire.
"I consider all information requests that are being pro‐ vided to me by minister
Reznikov," Anand said before touring the conference floor. "I have been in touch with him and I will be meeting with him in the upcoming days."
Christyn Cianfarani, presi‐ dent and CEO of CADSI, said she can't speak to discussions individual companies may al‐ ready have had with Ukraine, but her association, which is the representative of indus‐ try, has not seen a list that it can distribute to its members.