Diplomacy, not drones needs to end war in Ukraine
In a recent press conference, National Defence Minister Bill Blair announced that Canada would be spending $95 million to buy 800 Teledyne armed drones for Ukraine. Alongside the defence minister, Teledyne’s vice-president Anne Bulik expressed her “excitement” to deliver combat-proven Skyranger unmanned aerial systems that are manufactured in Ontario to the war-torn country.
This acquisition is part of Canada’s contribution to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) new goal of producing one million drones this year for the Ukrainian Armed Forces (UAF).
In Kyiv, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau explained that the federal government has already invested $2.4 billion to supply Canadianmade weapons including guns, ammunition, tanks and artillery to the UAF.
The United States has provided $44.2 billion in military aid for Ukraine since February 2022, according to the Congressional Research Service (CRS).
American kamikaze Switchblade and Reaper drones have facilitated remote control warfare in Ukraine.
Yet, as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has admitted, 90 per cent of this aid to Ukraine actually stays in the U.S. and supports American weapons production, which Blinken called “a win-win we need to continue.”
The business of war is extremely lucrative for the U.S., Canada and their allies. NATO countries account for 70 per cent of the global arms trade. It’s no wonder that NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg insists that allies continue delivering “more weapons to Ukraine.”
Canadian weapons manufacturers, such as Teledyne, L3, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, Colt and Roshel, are making huge profits, while Ukrainians are paying a heavy price in this war.
In 1935, retired U.S. Maj.-gen. Smedley Butler warned, “War is a racket. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.”
In a December 2023 briefing, the U.S. CRS confirmed that warweary Ukraine has “suffered high levels of casualties, lowering force quality” and “sustained significant equipment losses” over the past two years.
Despite major NATO assistance and military aid, the Ukrainian counter-offensive last summer was a complete failure and Russia now controls over 20 per cent of the territory. This month, the Russian military captured the eastern town of Avdiivka, which was the UAF’S most important strategic stronghold in Donetsk Oblast.
In a television interview, Kyiv’s former prosecutor general and Minister of Internal Affairs Yuriy Lutsenko said that over 500,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed since February 2022, which is much higher than President Volodymyr Zelenskyy claimed. Lutsenko said 30,000 soldiers are being killed every month and called on the president to be honest with Ukrainians.
In spite of the new mobilization bill, there are not enough men and munitions to send to the front lines as the Washington Post has reported. Thousands of Ukrainians are fleeing the country and thousands more are seriously wounded.
As we pass the two-year anniversary of the war in Ukraine, Canadians must soberly assess the stark realities on the battlefield
and ask: Who is really benefiting by keeping the war going?
Why has the Trudeau government spent billions on weapons but not one dollar on any diplomatic solution?
In the high-profile interview with Tucker Carlson last month, President Vladimir Putin said that the Russian Federation is ready for negotiations. In fact, Russia publicly proposed two draft treaties to the U.S. and NATO in December 2021 to avoid a war and agreed to a peace settlement with Kyiv in Istanbul in April 2022.
But, as Ukrainian negotiators Davyd Arakhamia and Oleksandr Chalyi admitted, it was the United States and the United Kingdom with their NATO allies that shamefully blocked the settlement. They cynically wanted Ukraine “to just fight” Russia.
By contrast, South Africa, Brazil, Mexico, China and the Vatican have responsibly called for a ceasefire, encouraged talks between Kyiv and Moscow, and proposed peace deals.
It’s time for Canada and NATO to support these international mediation efforts and not enrich arms manufacturers by extending the conflict.
Diplomacy not drones and more weapons will end the war and ensure peace and security in Ukraine.