Canadian Defense Minister commits US$305.2M in military assistance to Ukraine

Bill Blair, Minister of National Defense of Canada, announced $440 million CAD (approximately $305.29 million USD) in military assistance to Ukraine, at the 25th Ukraine Defense Contact Group (UDCG) meeting, reported from the Canadian government’s website.

Ammunition remains one of Ukraine’s highest priorities and today’s announcement includes the contribution of $200 million CAD (approximately $138.7 million USD) to Czechia’s initiative to procure and deliver large-caliber ammunition for Ukraine. This contribution comes in addition to over $53 million CAD (approximately $36.7 million USD) announced last year for the Czech initiative, which has already provided approximately 11,500 rounds of large-caliber ammunition to Ukraine. An additional $50 million CAD (approximately $34.6 million USD) will also be made available for the procurement of various calibers of ammunition from the Canadian industry.

Minister Blair also committed $100 million CAD ($69.3 million USD) to the Danish Model to support the production of military drones by Ukraine’s domestic defense industry. Drones have become critical in this conflict and Ukraine’s defense industry is excelling in innovation and experimentation in this field. This contribution builds upon the $3 million CAD (approximately $2.08 million USD) that Canada donated in April 2024 to this initiative and the donation of 900 Canadian-built SkyRanger drones from Teledyne FLIR in Waterloo, Ontario—560 of which have already been delivered to Ukraine.

In addition, Minister Blair announced the donation of: $30 million CAD (approximately $20.8 million USD) for winter gear, including sleeping bags, winter boots and thermal layers. Several tranches of this donation were delivered to Ukraine in December 2024; $64 million CAD (approximately $44.3 million USD) worth of high-resolution drone cameras, that were delivered to Ukraine in November and December 2024; The donations announced today are part of the additional $500 million CAD (approximately $346 million USD) in military assistance to Ukraine announced at the 2024 NATO Summit, and the $1.6 billion CAD (approximately $1.1 billion USD) announced in Budget 2024. This brings the total value of Canadian military assistance to $4.5 billion CAD (approximately $3.1 billion USD) since Russia’s full-scale invasion began.

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