Canada is open to sending troops back to Ukraine to train Ukrainian forces if the right “conditions” are met, Canadian Defense Minister Bill Blair said on Tuesday.
Like many other NATO countries, Canada began training Ukrainian forces inside Ukraine following the 2014 US-backed coup that ousted former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. But since the February 2022 Russian invasion, Canada has been training Ukrainians inside the UK, Latvia, and Poland.
Last year, the Discord leaks confirmed there were a small number of NATO special operations forces inside Ukraine, including troops from the US, the UK, France, and Latvia, but there’s no sign Canadians have been in the country.
“Right now, circumstances are not appropriate for that training to take place in Ukraine, but we’re going to continue to train,” Blair said. “We have had a number of discussions with Ukrainians that suggest when the conditions are right, we may be able to return.”
Blair’s comments come after French President Emmanuel Macron stirred an uproar by saying NATO should not rule out sending troops to Ukraine. Russian media also published a recording of a conversation between German military officers that revealed British soldiers were on the ground in Ukraine helping fire Storm Shadow missiles.
While NATO’s small troop presence in Ukraine and assistance in helping Ukraine fire Western weapons has been an open secret, the alliance’s direct involvement in the war risks a direct confrontation with Russia, which could quickly turn nuclear. Russia has said any open NATO troop deployment would make a direct clash inevitable.
Source: AntiWar.
