Media: Canada is considering additional defense aid to Ukraine, including UAVs

The Canadian government is considering providing Ukraine with additional defense assistance, including drones.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced this at a meeting in the G7+Ukraine format in New York, Interfax-Ukraine reports.

He also assured that Canada intends to continue to work with Ukraine and its partners to provide all necessary support to achieve victory over Russian aggression.

“We are providing Ukraine with $500 million in a new military aid package that I announced at the NATO summit in July, and we are looking at other areas of critical and urgently needed support, such as drones, artillery, armor, and fighter pilot training,” Trudeau said.

In addition, Canada supports Ukraine’s ongoing diplomatic efforts to achieve a just and lasting peace, including through the peace formula.

On September 6, Canada announced the transfer of a new military aid package to Ukraine and the start of training Ukrainian fighter jet pilots.

Bill Blair, Canada’s Minister of Defense, announced this during the 24th Ukraine Defense Contact Group (UDCG) meeting at Ramstein Air Base in Germany.

The Minister stated that in that week, pilots of the Armed Forces of Ukraine arrived in Canada to begin training under the Lead-in Fighter Training (LIFT) program.

Canada has taken the lead on LIFT training for Ukrainian pilots as part of the Aviation Coalition.

This was made possible by allocating $389 million to train Ukrainian F-16 pilots.

The military assistance package includes 80,840 rocket engines for the CRV-7 unguided 70mm air-to-air missiles and 1,300 warheads for them.

Canada will also donate 970 surplus C6 machine guns (a licensed Canadian copy of the Belgian FN MAG) and 10,500 surplus 9mm pistols.