It is only therefore a
matter of time before the European Union will return to the question of tougher economic
and financial sanctions and U.S. President Barack Obama has to decide whether to
continue to fight his own Democratic Party, as well as Republicans and both
houses of the U.S. Congress, over whether to authorize supplying defensive
military equipment for Ukraine
(https://foreignpolicy.com/2015/02/18/lets-call-the…).
But, Canada, in addition to
Western Europe, is also opposed to providing Ukraine with military equipment and
with Minsk-2 having disintegrated at the strategic railroad crossing of
Debaltseve from which Ukrainian forces retreated, will Prime Minister Stephen
Harper’s government, which has been strong on rhetoric but weak on substance,
and the Canadian parliament continue to oppose the sending of military
equipment to Ukraine?
While the rift between EU
members Germany and France and the US over the sending of defensive military equipment
to Ukraine has been prominently highlighted there has been no focus on as
important a rift between the US and Canada, the second in just over a decade
since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. Ukrainian-Canadian activists point the
finger at Germany and France for selling out Ukraine while ignoring their own
political leaders
(https://archive.kyivpost.com/opinion/op-ed/oksana-bashu…).
The split between the then
Liberal government and hawkish neocon Bush administration represented a
strategically important shift in the NATO alliance as Canada broke ranks with the
US and Britain over intervention and regime change in Iraq. Today, a new rift has
appeared between a Conservative government and Canadian parliament and a Republican-dominated
US Congress and US president.
Both houses of the US
Congress support the sending of defensive military equipment to Ukraine while
the Ukrainian Canadian Congress has only found two MP’s who support this in the
House of Commons, a Conservative and the National Democratic Party.
Former Liberal MP Borys Wrzesnewskyj asked ‘As the founder of what at
one time was the most active parliamentary friendship group The Canada-Ukraine
Parliamentary Friendship Group, I do not understand why the group has not
passed a resolution demanding that Canada send defensive lethal weapons.
Last December the US
Congress adopted a Ukraine Freedom Support Act that provides for all-round
economic, financial, democratic and security assistance to Ukraine. There is no
such equivalent legislation in the Canadian parliament.
The US-Canadian rift is
perhaps best seen by the plethora of editorials and opinion page commentaries
in the British and US media in support of sending defensive
military equipment to Ukraine and a more generally tougher policy to President Vladimir
Putin’s Russia. There is an absence of such media coverage in Canada.
Former Ukrainian Ambassador to Canada
Vadym Prystaiko complained last summer of low level of support (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ukraine-has-not-received-canadian-aid-promised-months-ago-ambassador-says/article19735632/). After President Petro Poroshenko visited Ottawa last
September the promised aid was dispersed to Ukraine.
Nevertheless, when Poroshenko told the US Congress that his country could not fight Russian troops
and their terrorist proxies with blankets, Ukraine’s Debaltseve Dunkirk shows
he could have said the same thing about winter clothing.
Canadian government ministers and commentators have argued
along two lines against the sending of defensive military equipment to Ukraine.
Firstly, Ukraine is highly corrupt and the aid could be
stolen. While it is true that Ukraine has a high level of corruption, this is
true for Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan with which Western democracies have
long had security ties. Indeed, if Canadian special forces can train the Kurds to fight the Islamic State’s threat to Iraq’s
sovereignty why could they not train Ukrainians to defend theirs? Training
could be increased within long-running annual Canada-Ukraine Maple Arch and
Rapid Trident exercises.
Training and advice is as important as military hardware
in transforming Ukrainian forces into counter insurgency forces and such
assistance by its very nature cannot be stolen. Training by Canadian special
forces, considered to be one of the best in the world, would make Ukrainian
forces more accountable reducing civilian casualties arising from out dated Soviet
era military tactics that rely heavily on indiscriminate artillery and rocket
attacks.
Secondly, defensive military aid to Ukraine could end up
in the hands of nationalist volunteer battalions. Here, the answer is simply
for Canada to do the same as the US in only sending assistance to the Ukrainian
military.
While Harper has used a megaphone in his
attacks against President Vladimir Putin’s destructive support for conflict in Ukraine,
his government and the Canadian parliament have adopted weaker economic and
financial sanctions than the EU and have not supported the call of the U.S.
Congress to provide defensive military assistance to Ukraine. U.S. will begin to
train Ukrainian forces next month.
Now is the time for Harper to follow
Lithuania and Poland who have stated their willingness to begin supplying arms
and Britain, which has sold 75 Saxon armored personnel carriers to
Ukraine. Canada should be on the same
page as the U.S. on this important strategic decision.
Failing a repair of the rift with the U.S., Canada’s 1.5
million voters of Ukrainian descent will undoubtedly bare the Harper
government’s reticence when they go to cast their votes in the next elections.
Former Liberal MP Borys Wresznewskyj said ‘Ukraine will win the war of
aggression that Russia has begun against Ukraine. But, at what cost will this
be? 10,000 lives? 50,000 lives? 100,000 Ukrainians?’ and why Canada is not giving support to Ukraine during its battle
for survival as a sovereign state.
).
Borys Wrzesnewskyj, a former member of parliament, talks about the need to help Ukraine’s defense against Russia’s war.
Taras Kuzio is a senior research associate at the Canadian
Institute for Ukrainian Studies, University of Alberta and non-resident fellow
at the Center for Transatlantic Relations, School of Advanced International
Studies, Johns Hopkins University, Washington D.C. He is author of the
forthcoming book to be published in June entitled “Ukraine: Democratization,
Corruption and the New Russian Imperialism.”
