Kyiv asks Ottawa to extend the stay of Canadian military trainers in Ukraine
Ukraine started negotiations with the Canadian Delegation on extending the UNIFIER operation training mission, said Ukrainian Ambassador to Canada Andriy Shevchenko in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
"The UNIFIER mission started in 2015, was extended in 2017 and now it's officially set to continue up to March 31, 2019. We started working with the Canadian government on the extension of the period of the stay of this mission in Ukraine and I think we have good chances,” the Ambassador said.
Under this operation, the Armed Forces of Canada aid in capacity-building of special staff of Ukrainian forces supporting Ukraine’s efforts in maintaining sovereignty, security and stability. As of August 2, Canadian trainers have trained 7,900 Ukrainian servicemen.
"We think that we can make this training program more flexible and to make better use of the fact that Sweden and Denmark joined UNIFIER,” Shevchenko stated. He added that Ukraine and Canada are actively negotiating on the supply of weapons.
"We are developing several very important contracts on weapons. One of them is, in fact, at the finish line right now. I can say that it is about the purchasing of sniper rifles with a good striking range, which our military needs. Now, the contract is at the stage of signing an export license,” the Ambassador commented.
Shevchenko hopes that in the coming days the formal procedure will be completed.