Russia-Ukraine War: Canada PM Trudeau Pledges Continued Support for Ukraine, Including Training Troops, Pilots

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pledged continued support for Ukraine for as long as necessary in the ongoing war. Trudeau added that it would include the training of Ukrainian troops and, potentially, pilots.

On Sunday, Trudeau told reporters during a news conference that Canada was always willing to provide more support for Ukraine. Trudeau is in Japan for the annual G7 summit, the gathering of leaders from the seven major economies in the world, which includes Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, Japan, and France. Trudeau was pressed on whether Canada would train the Ukrainian military.

Trudeau said that Canada would continue to train Ukrainian troops, and the training may be expanded to training Ukrainian pilots. This follows US President Joe Biden and other US officials telling G7 leaders that Washington supports joint allied training programs to use the F-16 jets that Ukraine is seeking to acquire.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on the G7 countries and the world to make sure that Russia would be the “last aggressor” to prevent future wars. During remarks at the conference, Zelenskyy said that Ukraine winning the war would deter future aggressors and that Kyiv’s 10-point peace plan would be the world’s “salvation from war.” The plan was first introduced in November last year and would see the restoration of Ukraine’s borders and the complete withdrawal of Russian forces from Ukrainian territories, and security guarantees for nuclear, energy, and food.

Meanwhile, the British defense ministry said on Monday that Russia is creating an “elite” attack aviation group referred to as “Shtorm” that would carry out operations over Ukraine. In the ministry’s intelligence bulletin, the special unit is said to include a squadron of Su-FENCER and Su-34 FULLBACK fighter aircraft as well as a squadron of attack helicopters.

“The mix of aircraft types suggests the group will have a primary role of ground attack missions. Credible Russian media reports suggest that the Russian MoD aims to attract highly skilled and motivated pilots by offering large pay incentives and opening recruitment to retired aviators,” said the ministry.

The ministry added that Moscow’s creation of the unit is an indication of how Russia views its regular air force factions as having “severely underperformed” in their main function of carrying out airstrikes in Ukraine.

Photo: Simon Dawson (No. 10 Downing Street)/Wikimedia Commons(CC by 2.0)