Protecting military trainers if they are redeployed to Ukraine is a major concern for Canadian defense planners as France increases pressure on its allies to join its training initiatives, top official said military commander of Canada.
The federal government indicated earlier this spring that it would consider sending non-combatant troops back to the conflict-torn Eastern European country when “circumstances permit.”
Chief of Defense Staff General Wayne Eyre received a briefing on the training mission from his French counterpart following a D-Day commemoration ceremony last week.
In an interview with CBC Live’s Rosemary Barton broadcast on Sunday, Eyre acknowledged that the security assistance agreement signed by Canada with Ukraine last winter provided the framework for the return of Canadian coaches to Ukrainian soil. He said there were a number of important issues Canada wanted to resolve before firing its coaches.
Canadian Armed Forces planners “were primarily concerned with force protection and the security situation.” [on the ground] and what the political conditions are,” Eyre said.
Canada and other allies began conducting military training missions in Ukraine in 2015, well before Russia launched a full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Combat schools for Ukrainian troops continue in the UK, Poland and Latvia. But France and other allies, including the Baltic states, have insisted that the instructions be implemented closer to the front lines where Ukraine must fight.
At the beginning of June, the French chief of staff, General Thierry Burkhard, sent a letter to around ten countries inviting them to join a multinational coalition to train soldiers in Ukraine.
Canadian defense officials would not confirm whether Canada had received any of the letters, but said no decisions had been made about participating in the French-led initiative.
For now, it’s the status quo, said a spokesperson for Defense Minister Bill Blair.
“Canada continues to train members of the Ukrainian armed forces through Operation UNIFIER, where we have trained more than 41,000 Ukrainian soldiers,” Diana Ebadi said in a media statement.
“Canadian training is underway in Latvia, Poland and the United Kingdom and our plan is to continue training in these locations. »
On Friday, NATO unveiled separate but complementary plans to better manage the training of Ukrainian troops and the supply of weapons to the Kiev government. The new effort — headquartered at a U.S. military base in Wiesbaden, Germany and staffed by nearly 700 people — will host advanced training in allied countries but not in Ukraine.
“These efforts do not make NATO a party to the conflict, but will increase our support for Ukraine to uphold its right to self-defense,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told the resulting from a meeting of defense ministers which approved these measures. .
The Kremlin has warned that any foreign troops setting foot in Ukraine would be considered a “legitimate target” for the Russian army.
French President Emmanuel Macron supported the plan and reportedly promoted the idea as part of the European Union Military Assistance Mission in Support of Ukraine (EUMAM), an EU military assistance program implemented six months after the start of the full-scale invasion of Russia. .
Late last month, Ukraine’s top military commander reported that he had signed a status of forces agreement that would allow French military instructors access to Ukrainian training bases in the near future.
“I am happy to welcome the French initiative to send instructors to Ukraine to train Ukrainian soldiers,” Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi said on the Telegram social network on May 27, 2024. “I signed a document that will allow the first French instructors to immediately visit our training centers and get to know their infrastructure and staff.
Eyre said he did not want to speculate on whether the federal government would agree to support the French plan with Canadian personnel. He noted that the last time Canada stationed troops in his country, Ukraine was already at war with Russian-backed forces in the country’s east.
“At some point it will be the right thing to do,” Eyre said.
Some defense analysts suggest Canada could wait until hostilities cease before sending military trainers back to Ukraine.
Eyre said it may be difficult to decide when the war will be “over.” He spoke of the divided Korean Peninsula, where an armistice signed in July 1953 ended open hostilities even though a state of “war” still prevailed.
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