Ukrainian President asks Canada to share satellite intelligence about Russia
Petro Poroshenko has appealed to Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau with a request to grant Kyiv access to satellite reconnaissance data. The Ukrainian president himself spoke about this in an interview with the Canadian television channel CBC.
As Poroshenko explained, Kyiv is interested in satellite images of the border with Russia. According to the Ukrainian authorities, the data that Canadian satellites can provide would help with tracking the movement of Russian troops in the Donbas.
"Because that can effectively help us implement the Minsk agreement, to have evidence that Russia moved their tanks, artillery systems, multi-rocket launch systems," Poroshenko said.
As CBC notes, this is not the first such request by the Ukrainian authorities. In 2015, Ukraine persuaded Canada to share the data from Radarsat-2, a satellite used for remote tracking. Canada had launched the satellite in 2007 from the Baikonur cosmodrome with the help of the Soyuz FG carrier rocket. Kyiv used photographs from the satellite to monitor the situation in the Donbas. According to CBC, the cost of images was $9.5 million. However, at the end of 2015, elections were held in Canada, which resulted in the victory of the opposition Liberal Party, headed by Trudeau, who became the new head of the government. The new government refused to continue the program, citing its high cost and "licensing restrictions." At the end of 2016, the Canadian government confirmed that it did not intend to review its decision and open Ukraine's access to satellite reconnaissance data.
Nevertheless, Poroshenko, following his visit to Canada last week, suggested that he would be able to persuade the Canadian authorities to change their position. "I have no doubt that we will resolve this issue," the Ukrainian president said.
Poroshenko also called on Canada to participate in the peacekeeping mission in the Donbas. According to the Ukrainian President, he discussed this idea with Trudeau and is pleased with the position of the Canadian Prime Minister. At the same time, Poroshenko blatantly excluded the possibility of Russia's participation in the peacekeeping mission. " Russia is an aggressor. We don't have discussions," he stressed. Poroshenko called the format that Moscow proposed the participation of peacekeepers in the conflict "impossible."
The meeting between Trudeau and Poroshenko was held on Friday, September 22. At the end of the talks, the Canadian prime minister said that his government is working on resolving the issue of the supply of lethal weapons to Ukraine. However, Trudeau did not name a specific timeline.