Canadian Training

From G & M:
"Canada to join U.S. and Britain in training Ukrainian troops"

Canada is deploying around 200 soldiers to beleaguered Ukraine, still the target of Russian aggression, but Ottawa is insisting the troops will be training Kiev’s military rather than battling Moscow. Prime Minister Stephen Harper made the announcement in Ottawa Tuesday, along with Defence Minister Jason Kenney and General Tom Lawson, chief of the defence staff.  This is the second deployment into a major regional conflict by the Conservative government in the last seven months. One Canadian soldier has already died in northern Iraq where 69 special forces personnel were sent last fall on what was also supposed to be a non-combat mission. The Canadian soldiers heading to Ukraine will join U.S. and British troops there early this summer on a deployment expected to last until March 31, 2017. The Harper government framed the mission as an effort to help counter Moscow’s efforts to destabilize eastern Ukraine. The Conservatives said Canadian soldiers will be located in western Ukraine, far from the fighting between Kiev and Russia-backed separatists.

“Canada continues to stand with the people of Ukraine in the face of the Putin regime’s ongoing aggression. The Canadian military contribution being announced today will help Ukrainian forces personnel to better defend their country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Mr. Harper said. The Ukrainian government relies on a variety of fighters, including ultra-right wing nationalists, to wage war against the Moscow-backed rebels. The Conservatives say they will avoid training these irregulars

 

^ Hopefully with Canada (and the US and UK) helping train the Ukrainians it will counter-balance what the Russians are doing with the ethnic-Russian terrorists in eastern Ukraine. ^

 

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/canada-preparing-to-join-us-and-britain-in-training-ukrainian-troops/article23920936/