Ukraine urgently needs military aid as the war enters 3rd year | Power & Politics

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Well tomorrow marks 2 years since Russia invaded Ukraine sparking the largest armed conflict in Europe since World War II here’s a quick look back at how it started and where it stands from the north south and east tens of thousands of Russian troops and tanks stormed Ukraine on February 24th

2022 Russia expected to take keev within days but Ukraine’s resistance was grossly underestimated after early gains Russia was held back a Ukrainian counter defensive even regained some lost territory funding from allies has been crucial billions of dollars and mass deliveries of weapons and equipment have helped power Ukraine’s fight but that

Lifeline is now on life support aid from the US has dried up as Republicans block attemps to send more and for months it appeared the war was at a stalemate but the tide has begun to turn in Russia’s favor with Ukraine running low on supplies the human and economic toll has

Already been severe as the United Nations estimates more than 10,000 civilians have been killed and up to 70,000 Ukrainian soldiers Millions were forced to flee the country and the country they left now wears the Battle Scars of war the damage to buildings and infrastructure is estimated to be at 152

Billion Julia kovalev is Ukraine’s ambassador to Canada Ambassador welcome back to the show thank you thank you for having me today I’d like to start off with the situation on the battlefield which is looking pretty Grim in recent months this week Russia took over the city of

Adiva Ukraine says it’s running low on on ammunition uh because of slow deliveries from the West H how dire is the situation on the battlefield in your country right now you know that um um the the situation is now significantly linked to uh to the uh ability for Ukrainian

Soldiers to fight back uh and also the way whether they have the um ammunition whether they have enough weapons to fight back and uh the one thing what Ukraine is doing ourselves we are significantly increasing our own defense sector both with our Ukrainian C capabilities but also building The Joint

Um centers of production of different weapons in Ukraine with the global leaders um Global defense companies and also we are working and urging our partners to speed up the delivery of uh those type of weapons uh that have been uh you know promised to Ukraine because that’s important that our soldiers who

Are there now who are now in the C tranches so they are well equipped to be able to fight back are are you getting any indications from your allies that deliveries will be sped up we know the issues in the United States with that significant Aid bill being held up by by

A small cohort of the Republic repan party uh we’ve seen insistence from countries like France that whatever the European Union Buys in terms of Munitions as bought within Europe which can slow things down I mean how worried are you that domestic political considerations amongst the Allies are

Getting in the way of the the rapid delivery of the ammunition and weapons that you need uh we see uh that now many of the European countries uh stepped in with the both the delivery of the military support but also building this joint ventures to produce uh that both in

Ukraine and in the EU and NATO countries to be able both to supply to Ukraine and to increase stock as many of the NATO countries are increasing their defense spendings uh we uh we just recently Ukraine signed the security um agreement with UK with Germany with France um

Today with the Denmark and each of this agreement includes also the big package for the Military Support which is committed specifically for this year uh plus European Union just make a decision for the 50 billion support package so this is now the time when a lot of our

Partners are stepping up uh to be there in the moment when there is uh still the the debate in us and this is a very important moment just for the other partners to step in and to give the shoulder of support to Ukraine the the us though seems critical Ambassador they

Have been the spine of of the military support certainly in the high-end uh military technology that that your country has used to this point uh how concerning is the political situation in the United States right now for the defense of Ukraine uh we are of course working uh

With with the Congress we are working with a lot of friends of Ukraine uh so that the US support continue uh for Ukraine because uh it’s it’s important for all of us it’s important for the interest of all of the NATO um countries NATO member countries uh because in

Reality what is happening today Ukraine is fighting to protect our own country but also fighting um for to protect the Eastern flank of NATO to protect many of those countries who Barb uh neighboring with Russia and Canada has also Russia as a neighbor in the Arctic so it’s in our joint interest

To win this war and so that Russia will learn their lesson once and for many decades ahead and forever uh that it cannot by itself withdraw The Sovereign borders you mentioned that your your country has recently signed security arrangements with the United Kingdom with France Germany and Denmark I

Understand Italy may be close I know there are conversations with Canada draft proposals have been exchanged how close uh are Ukraine and Canada to formalizing a security agreement the negotiation teams Po from our side and from the um Canadian uh uh side uh are working closely um and you

Know that this work is now in progress okay is it imminent or uh is it too different ult to say or am I getting you in trouble by asking you to try to give us a timeline on when this might be done no there was this this week there were

The consultations which were happening in cave so it’s like the the progress is good and uh both teams are wor working very intensely okay uh I I have to ask your question as well we we focus a lot on on the weapons and the ammunition shortages uh that president zalinsky has

Warned about and which we’ve seen on the B battlefield but we also see that that Ukrainian lawmakers are P are considering a revised mobilization bill which would expand the eligibility to be drafted in the military service and also um put stiffer penalties for people who U avoid uh the mobilization to stand in

The defense of Ukraine is the concern right now Ambassador not just am munition shortage but possibly a shortage of soldiers uh because of this because we are seeing Russia grow its forces considerably in your country and and in its own country is Ukraine also facing a shortage of

People as this U War enters its third year um of course like uh there are the people many people who back two years ago um exactly the day that we were marked tomorrow on February 21st Force volunteer went to serve to protect the country and many of them are fighting

Already two years with almost no polls and of course we need to uh provide uh rotations for them so the people need to go home the people need to have rest and we need to conscript more people so that it will be the rotation between them and the new uh legislation that the

Parliament is now considering uh precisely uh is talking about it so it will clearly Define the uh the lengths of how long the people people are serving um how what will the will be the rotation period um and this will give more clarity and of course that this

Will um allow many people to have the clarity in how long they will serve when they will come back home what will be their training how they well they will will be equipped um and these all are important things in terms of the most important things what I personally hear

Of a lot of my friends who are now serving the most hottest spots is that uh the biggest motivation from for the people who are serving who are fighting on the exact the front lines is the uh the weapons as they are getting more weapons more artillery shells and they

Are able to fight back this is the biggest motivation because if they are sitting for days and nights and it’s also winter in Ukraine it’s quite cold and without the ability to fight back of course it’s uh the people are desperate because they they want to make a

Progress they are ready to do it they are well trained and Canada supported a lot the training for Ukrainian troops and this this is the the key thing if the people understand that they are going to the front line they will H all they will have all what they need to

Fight it means including the long range weapons including the needed artillery shells of course we will see much different situation on the front line it seems though uh two years in this could still go for for quite some time because Russia had that rapid advance in

The early stages of the war and then your soldiers took back about half of the territory in the counter offensive but now as we we started this conversation uh key cities like abdika of Diva are being lost because of the ammunition shortage there is also a US presidential election happening later

This year and the war will likely not be done before Americans vote How concerned is Ukraine about the possibility of a Donald Trump presidency given everything he said about President zalinski uh about Vladimir Putin and about NATO first of all we are ready to work with all of the

Uh Administration and all of the governments among our partners with the arguments why it’s important and why Ukrainian Victory is important and uh I think you know if we are looking on the battlefield and was this discussions I think we are missing also one important point which happened this year uh and I

Will just give you the figure in January in January this year Ukraine has been able to export almost the uh same volume of cargo through the uh Black Sea ports as we’ve done pre-war so there is a significant Improvement what is happening on the Black Sea even without

Any like istanb initiative Ukraine was able to significantly destroy the Russian Navy Fleet in the Blake sea so now not only Ukraine but the other uh different cargo is going uh through the ports uh and just recently we were very successful in destroying Russian fighter

Jets and I want to remind you as we are looking on the situation on the front line this is one of this the cases of the fullscale war where unfortunately till now Ukraine does not have uh prevailed in the air so we are waiting

For the F-16 um to be a great support of our troops on the ground because now unfortunately Russia still Prevail prevails in the air we have uh made a big progress in destroying within the recent two weeks uh a great number of uh Russian fighter jets including one

Yesterday so we will continue to do that but of course we are waiting for the delivery of the F-16 which will support our troops on the ground I just have one final question um you mentioned you know people who were fighting on the front lines um you you’ve been in this

Diplomatic job throughout this war but you’re a Ukrainian with friends and family in that country just how have you been holding up over these two years and how do you feel personally as you’re entering this this third year of of Russia’s Invasion um over the weekend my cousin

Died he was killed by Russians on the front line he was 35 and he has two children so um just to explain everybody the war is very personal to each of us and you know there is no other way for us than to win this war there is no

Other way that each of us having this grief and pain uh in our families between our closed ones and the suffering of the all 40 million Nation uh we will fight till the end because we want to live in our country we want to live in our cities we want to live on

Our land we and the key goal what Russia wants just to erase Ukraine as a nation and so with support or without support we will fight and um it’s important for all of our partners all of our friends to also ask tomorrow on the second year

Of the anniversary what else we can do to end the suffering and to support our Victory Julia kiv I please accept my my deepest sympathies on the loss of your cousin and uh thank you so much uh for joining us today Julia Koval Ukraine’s ambassador to Canada thank you for more

On the second year anniversary of Russia’s war on Ukraine we’ have assembled a group of diplomats from some key Allied countries here in Ottawa we’re going to bring in Susanna gko she’s the United Kingdom’s High Commissioner to Canada Karina hosel is Deputy head of Germany’s mission to Canada and Vito jillsky is Poland’s

Ambassador to Canada thank you all so much for coming in on an important day thank you thank you hi commissioner I’d like to start with you if I could I mean we’ve heard some dire warnings from president zalinsky this week about the lack of ammunition forcing them to seed

Territory in in in eastern Ukraine and the United States which is such a core part of this still can’t get the latest Aid package through its Congress How concerned is the United Kingdom How concerned are the iies right now well look here we are two years into a war

That nobody wanted apart from Putin and his cronies and Ukraine have made some pretty remarkable uh achievements they’ve shown real bravery and determination throughout they’ve managed to recapture 50% of the territory that Russia took from them meanwhile Putin’s economy is collapsing and he’s an indicted war criminal but look the

Reality of this is that this is not the moment now to lose our nerve we need to keep up the pressure right now we need to keep it up because victory for Ukraine is not guaranteed and we have to ensure that that Ukraine prevails um Lord Cameron our foreign secretary was

Speaking at the UN today and he said that what we’ve seen with Russia is that if they are allowed to succeed without being restrained then they come back for more we must not let that happen now we saw it in 2008 we saw it in 2014 with

Russia now is the moment to stand up to Putin we have the resource es we need to allow Ukraine to to succeed we need to demonstrate now that we have the collective will so so Deputy Ambassador on that uh clearly the west and the NATO allies have the resources they need but

President zalinsky says they’re not getting there fast enough meanwhile Russia is rearming at a surprising rate spending about 6% of its GDP on military aid and stepping up its military recruitment what what does NATO what do other countries need to do to speed things up for president zinan as

Soldiers yeah we uh just made the the the the message clear also last week at the Munich security conference uh Chancellor Schultz talked to the key allies that we need to ramp up our efforts we need to make sure that we’re in it for the long haul that we need to

Ramp up um our production in ammunition we need to get uh the material as fast as possibly to um Ukraine uh just last week we signed the uh long-term security agreement with Ukraine um as had the UK already done in France um more uh partners are on the way and this shows

Its signals to Russia that we’re in it for the long haul we’re standing shoulder Tosh shoulder with our Ukrainian friends who so bravely defend their country but Ambassador why do you think there is a slowness in the pace of delivery this has been the consistent thing from from Ukraine uh in that they

They asked for lethal Aid and at first some countries refuse to do that then they ask for air defense and there’s a refusal and then they finally come around it and now the US is stalled in in a significant way because of what’s happening in their Congress I mean how

Concerned are you about what’s happening in the United States right now in all of those cases that you mentioned Poland was on the lead in terms of of of pushing whether it was military aid at the beginning whether it was uh um modern military aid like like

Modern tanks whether it was fighter jets uh and we are still at this uh in at the point of of supporting the process and pushing polish politicians right now are uh working on that topic right now the Polish foreign minister is in Washington DC working with um with American

Congress exactly on the topic that you that you’ve raised and his main reason for going to Washington DC is to uh to have a conversation with with with his partners and to encourage the positive uh change in the decision- making in that regard you know that that money

Needs to flow uh that equipment needs to flow to to to Ukraine there is uh there is no other way yeah commissioner of the United Kingdom like Poland very early to the defense of Ukraine and and at the Forefront of demanding the in escalation of the types of Aid if the US doesn’t

Get this through uh and we all know what Donald Trump has said he would do uh should he win this election do you think the UK the EU the other countries can can give Ukraine what it needs to defeat Russia if if America’s position changes well I’m not going to get into

Speculation of what the US might or might not do and it is important to say that so far they’ve been by far the largest contributor to Ukraine so they are vital to Ukraine’s success in this no question and we’re really Keen to see them move ahead with clear a clear

Demonstration of support for Ukraine but the the reality of this is that as the Polish Ambassador said Ukraine’s needs are enormous and the priority now has to be on getting equipment into the hands of ukrainians on the battlefield as soon as possible and we all need to work

Together to achieve that so Deputy uh Ambassador how do you convince countries to accelerate what they’re doing because the rhetoric is very clear that people are on board but we see these large gestures from Denmark for example sending their entire stock of certain types of military equipment uh to Ukraine uh H how

Do Germany and other countries convince people to meet the moment that as is required we all know that in all of our countries it’s a it’s a difficult debate but uh our people uh need to know that it is our security that is on the line it’s a long-term investment in our

Security and just yesterday the German Parliament passed a resolution so that the whole country has ried behind the actions of the government to demonstrate that um we need to provide the aid we’ve been so far the second largest military donor uh to Ukraine we need to step up

Step Up Aid um even though it costs us even though our economy suffer but um if we don’t do that now the repercussions will be fatal what about things like longrange missiles I I I know there was hope that Germany would send tourist missiles the US would send attack thems

There’s been a reluctance to do this it feels like the familiar pattern of the next level of Weaponry that’s being requested is denied or delayed I mean do you think Germany will eventually do that we’ve um in in included uh long uh range missiles um in into what we are um

Willing to to support Ukraine with um the the moment that the this can be done that needs to be defined still but um we uh are in in it as long as it takes so Ambassador on on the US situation the the comments from from former president

Trump um you know it seems like this war will last beyond the US election cycle and you’ve heard what he said you know about NATO and and how he feels about it and your country is right there on the doorstep and have had a heightened posture on this forever essentially how

Concerning are those comments from the former president to your government look on one hand Poland’s levels of spending are quite High we are at the 4% uh um GDP spent for um for military uh for for defense um on the other hand uh um The

Alliance NATO is is is not a club it’s not a business club and the Polish Minister rad shikori has said that a couple of times when we’ve gone to Afghanistan uh supporting United States uh within the NATO framework uh we did not send a bill to Washington uh because

This is this is this is an agreement which has more sense than business at the same time I would advise caution uh because in the in the first elections that uh president former president Trump took part in he was also called uh um you know a supporter of of Russia and

Putin and and in so many ways when he was the president that was not the case he worked uh um with us including with Poland very closely on um on working on Russia in terms of energy in terms of of um Russian outrageous um actions so you

Know one sphere is uh politics elections uh the other thing is something that will happen in uh in in the end and I think the positions of the um of the of the Canadian government in that regard uh uh are uh you know well well placed

So so High Commissioner as these as Wars drag on fatigue sets in you know uh dissatisfaction with the high cost uh financially and and other ways it grows I mean we’re seeing this in the United States that’s speaking to a constituency we’re seeing it here in Canada uh and

With the conflict now raging in the Middle East the security Focus has shifted for a lot of people to to that to the Israel Hamas War how challenging is it for for the Allies to to keep support to keep the focus and keep the urgency behind the defensive Ukraine

Well I just say two things about that the reason that we need Ukraine to Prevail is not just because we should all be outraged by the invasion of a sovereign Democratic State and we should all be determined to see Ukraine Prevail but it’s also because we should ask

Ourselves who else is watching what message are we sending if we don’t stand up to this outrage what will others take away from this that is really important and look I understand it’s really difficult to ask people to spend money on defense we’re all going through cost

Of living challenges at the moment and there are tough choices to be made but in vilnus last year we all committed to spending 2% on our defense as members of NATO it’s really important that we’re prepared to do that because that is our Collective best guarantee of security

Yes and I realize I’m asking you all these questions as a citizen of a country that is not near the 2% we’re at Canada is just above 1.3 you know when when you look at this uh Deputy Ambassador the what what is at stake that if War becomes an option

For expanding your your territory becomes an option you know for changing the situation if Russia should somehow Prevail do you think citizens as this has gone on and other conflicts rage see those Stakes as clearly as as perhaps people in the Diplomatic world do in Germany I suppose they do I think

Uh the the difficulty is with countries that are further away um but we see the repercussions I mean we’ve we’ve welcomed more than a million Ukrainian refugees in in our country so we they are our neighbors they are telling us every day what is on the line so I

Suppose that’s um yeah it it the cost is high but we we understand that um it’s a a war right in our immediate neighborhood so so Ambassador it really is your immediate neighborhood and and as we’ve heard from president zalinsky this week they abandoned an Eastern Ukrainian City this week to the Russians

Because they didn’t have the ammunition when you look at the state of the battlefield what are your concerns about how this conflict is going as as we enter the third year this is an immediate neighborhood of NATO uh of uh all of us NATO um many countries within

The transatlantic sphere uh live in and rightly so in an atmosphere of of comfort uh but the world is changing World outside of NATO is changing right now now Putin is looking at uh at NATO at the alliance and know in Poland we know how he how he

Thinks he thinks we’re weak and lazy and um and this is not true obviously because we are we are allies we work hand in hand and we’ve done a lot but uh um Moscow Putin understands only the language of strength um no language of negotiations uh at this point at least

In this situation is advisable um and all the conversations whether you know we are not uh whether Mr Putin does not get a little bit too angry with us for doing what we’re doing those conversations are unfortunately taking place in all of our countries and they’re wrong they’re wrong because only

The language of strength is understood by Kremlin and this is this is the way we should approach the topic we should invest more send more money in in Afghanistan we um um the countries our countries spent trillions of dollars uh while for uh for Ukraine by this point

It’s only billions but just I’ve seen some analysis and I don’t know if you agree with this that that right now Russia may be winning on the ground war in Ukraine a after the counter offensive took back half the territory the momentum has gone the way and a country

With an economy roughly the size of Spain has been able to withstand this for two years and push back deeper into Ukraine I mean do do you share that assessment do you believe that this is what is happening on the battlefield right now I learned a couple of things

From that conflict from the very beginning I learned that uh one has to be very care careful when listening to so-called wise men and experts they were so many times mistaken all the way so uh right now it’s not uh uh we should not think whether you know it’s time to stop

Because maybe you know it’s no there are all the reasons as High Commissioner mentioned the the international logic international law the the future incentives for for us everything tells us that uh um that we should not stop in any way but we need to support ukrainians in winning the war preserving

Their independence sovereignity culture Traditions language because all those things um are to be eradicated by Russia and polls know that very well ukrainians know know this very well because we’ve been in this position a number of times in history Vis VAV uh Russia unfortunately hi commissioner we’re out

Of time B when give you the last word I just what would be the number one thing you think right now that the allies and Western and NATO members can do for UK it’s commitment to stay the course we’ve got to uh be with Ukraine until Ukraine

Prevails and not falter in that as I said earlier we have the resources to do it we have an economy that is between us 25 times the size of Russia we need to show now we’ve got the collective will hi commissioner Deputy Ambassador Ambassador thank you so much for your time today

Ukrainian Ambassador to Canada Yuliya Kovaliv discusses Ukraine’s urgent need for weapons. Plus, diplomats from the United Kingdom, Poland and Germany weigh in on Ukraine’s need for allies’ support as it enters its third year of fighting Russia.

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35 COMMENTS

  1. Who cares? Ukraine isn’t Canada. This lie of this war is hidden and stop the deception.
    You seriously think we believe Ukraine is going to push Russia out? Back to the border? Retake Crimea? Rebuild Mariupol steel plant to smelt metal for bakhmut, doneskt , and Luhansk, apartment buildings?
    You want us to believe next year the farm fields will all be de mined and producing wheat for Europe.
    Stop this spending until you explain the real truth to Canadians .

  2. It started with a coup that sparked a civil war in 2014 with ethnic Russians in Eastern Ukraine when Russia decided to intervene in 2022 given US/UK weapons but now 100 billion and 500k dead but Ukraine wants more, despite lend lease weapons yet funded taking a year to deliver… Ukraine is fighting to regain territory it was fighting to control since 2014.
    CBC is not bespeaking reality and appears to cheer on forever war where soldiers now have an average age of 43 let alone millions of Ukrainians having left altogether. Stop this geo-political war?

  3. Extremely biased and misleading reporting. The war actually started in 2014 (Maidan coup d’état with the help of a false flag op —see Oliver Stone’s 2016 documentary Ukraine On Fire ) and can be blamed on the unelected Washington neocons who run the White House occupied by a dementia patient. They decided to start this PROXY WAR, hoping for yet another regime change, in Moscow. This has been a catastrophic failure, supported by the US vassal states, including Canada, that are doing nothing but prolonging a war that is impossible to win For real info, listen to Col. Doug Macgregor, Prof. Jeffrey Sachs, Prof. John Mearsheimer, Ray McGovern, the Grayzone, the Duran, Scott Ritter, Ben Norton, Max Blumenthal, etc.

  4. Speaking as an American tax payer, we're flat broke. Over $32 TRILLION in debt. The INTEREST we pay on that debt every year is equivalent to what we spend on our military (over $800 billion). Sorry but we can't borrow another $60 billion to give to Ukraine, on top of the $200 billion we've already sent. The well is dry. Who in their right mind would ever borrow money to give to someone else, especially someone that isn't even family, or a neighbor, but are on the other side of the planet?

  5. Ukraine: Not good enough for EU and NATO membership because of systemic corruption, but important enough to send what will quickly be a trillion dollars supporting a war to liberate territories, with Russian speaking population, from Russian occupation.

  6. Ukraine needs soldiers, over half a million more is required according to Zelensky. They cannot keep the soldiers they have now with all the the draft dodgers and soldiers escaping to neighbouring countries; CBC even has a story on that. Why are we sending anything to Ukraine with no possibility of success?

  7. Ukraine could go to the International court on behalf of Gaza? And if Gaza could go to court on the behalf of Ukraine if the court would allow it? It is reasonable that the world hear each other's position. that would be some sort of agreement to learn to hear each other, being able to agree to disagree is one thing, war is another.

  8. No one is going to send them long range missiles can’t trust them not to launch deep into Russia. Poke the bear you might not like the response WWll CARPET BOMING no one wants to see that

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