Today at 19:21
TAMARA ROZOUVAN, UATV CORRESPONDENT
The Canadian military’s presence in Ukraine has expanded over the past few years. There are currently more Canadian troops deployed at the International Peacekeeping and Security Centre than from any other NATO member country. The task force is in Ukraine until the end of March 2019, as part of Operation UNIFER.
We followed a unit of Canadian combat engineers training their Ukrainian counterparts. The groundwork has already been laid and now the Canadian and American engineers observe, as Ukrainian trainers lead the exercises.
SERGEANT ADAM THOMAS | CANADIAN ARMED FORCES
Canada’s support for Ukraine has been unwavering and some at the military base say it’s unlikely Canada will ever pull out its troops completely. Canadian forces have been deployed to at least eight military centers around Ukraine.
One of the Canadian military’s top priorities is to help Ukrainian troops reach NATO compatibility by 2020.
This involves embedding Canadian troops in Ukrainian platoons in order to share tactics and standard operational proceedings.
CAPTAIN SEGU, CANADIAN ARMED FORCES
“The intent again is to embed within and create that brotherhood between the soldiers there. And number two to demonstrate what NATO doctrine looks like, to show what we do at the tactical level and conduct offensive operations.”
Both sides exchange experiences from the combat zone. And contrary to general beliefs, the different languages pose no barriers for these soldiers.
CAPTAIN OLEKSANDDR TALASHYK, UKRAINIAN ARMED FORCES
“Well I can say that the Canadians are our brotherly nation. There are many representatives from the diaspora here so we find common language pretty quickly. This is a very positive aspect.”
As of February, the Canadian Armed Forces Joint Task Force trained more than 5,500 Ukrainian servicemen.
