Op UNIFIER - CAF and the Ukraine Crisis

[The Bread Guy]

Mo' help from Canada - in this case, helping train Ukrainian military police ....

The Honourable Rob Nicholson, P.C., Q.C, M.P. for Niagara Falls and Minister of National Defence, announced today that Canada will join the US – Ukraine Joint Commission on Defence Reform and Bilateral Cooperation in order to better coordinate Canada’s ongoing provision of assistance to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

The US-Ukraine Joint Commission is the most effective and efficient venue for Canada to ensure the donations and training opportunities provided to Ukraine are appropriate, coordinated and synchronized with Canada’s ally the United States. Canada and Ukraine are committed to continue working together to strengthen the capacity of the Ukrainian Government and its security forces to defend Ukraine’s territorial integrity and its people. At the invitation of the Joint Commission, Canada will lead the Military Police Sub-committee and will coordinate the Joint Commission’s training assistance efforts to Ukraine’s military police.

Quick Facts

    When the Joint Commission was formed in July 2014. Canada was an observer at the Joint Commission’s inaugural meeting in October 2014, and later requested and received an invitation for membership on the Joint Commission.
    The principal role of the Military Police Subcommittee is to coordinate the activities of participating nations to train and develop military police in Ukraine. More details on this subcommittee will become available as Canada undertakes this leadership role. In addition to leading the sub-committee, the Canadian Armed Forces is planning further initiatives to provide training assistance to the Ukrainian Armed Forces on matters related to military policing.
    Canada has made extensive donations to the Ukrainian military since August, 2014, both through direct donation and support by the Department of National Defence, as well as through the donations and funding support provided by Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada. This includes the donation and delivery of a range of targeted protection, medical and non-lethal military gear.
    In addition, Prime Minister Stephen Harper recently announced a second low-interest loan of $200 million for Ukraine to help the newly-elected government restore macroeconomic stability, promote sustainable growth, and support programming consistent with Canadian development priorities ....

 

[McG]

It looks like we will be sending an observer/trainer mission to Ukraine beginning in May.

http://www.ipolitics.ca/2015/04/01/canada-to-send-military-advisors-to-ukraine/

 

[PPCLI Guy]

I am pretty sure that it a training mission.  Not sure where they got the observer part from.

 

[McG]

Any word on mission name?

 

[SupersonicMax]

Reassurance?

 

[PPCLI Guy]

That is the NATO mission.  This one will no doubt start with a "U".

 

[McG]

More reports of a training mission to the Ukraine, but still little details.
I bet there is actually a lot they could teach us right now on the requirement for artillery and armour in numbers.

Canada to send troops to Ukraine in non-combat role
CTV News
10 Apr 2015

Canada will be sending troops to Ukraine to participate in a non-combat role in the region in the coming months.

CTV's Mercedes Stephenson reported the news Friday on Power Play.

"While the government is still working out the details, sources tell CTV News a training mission is one of the options on the table. Canada will likely work closely with American allies who are already in the region," Stephenson said.

Stephenson said senior Conservatives have been hinting at the possibility of an expanded mission for weeks, and the move will emphasize "Canada's strong anti-Putin stance and help shore up the Ukrainian government."

Canada has taken a clear stance against Russian military action in Ukraine, which it describes as an "illegal occupation." Canada has imposed sanctions against "those responsible for the ongoing crisis."

"Until Russia clearly demonstrates its respect for Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, Canada will continue to work with its allies and like-minded countries to apply pressure that will further isolate Russia economically and politically," reads a statement on the Foreign Affairs website.

http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/canada-to-send-troops-to-ukraine-in-non-combat-role-1.2321894

 

[TCBF]

- This will not end well.

 

[Pat in Halifax]

And the aggressor there is not an uneducated, undomesticated extremist.

 

[MilEME09]

Well here comes another election issue

 

[McG]

PM's announcement is apparently coming tomorrow (Tuesday).

 

[The Bread Guy]

PM's announcement is apparently coming tomorrow (Tuesday).

About an hour from this post ....

9:30 a.m. – Prime Minister Stephen Harper will make an announcement. He will be joined by Jason Kenney, Minister of National Defence and Minister for Multiculturalism, and General Thomas Lawson, Chief of the Defence Staff.

National Defence Headquarters
101 Colonel By Drive
Ottawa, Ontario ....

.... followed by another DefMin/CDS chat with media shortly thereafter?

Minister of National Defence, Jason Kenney and Chief of the Defence Staff, General Tom Lawson will hold a media opportunity on 14 April 2015, in Conference Room D, National Defence Headquarters.

Participants list (subject to change):

    Minister of National Defence, Jason Kenney
    Chief of the Defence Staff, General Tom Lawson

When: April 14, 2015, at 10:15 a.m. (EST)

Where: Conference Room D, 2 North Tower ....

And here's what The Canadian Press has heard ....

Canada appears set to join a U.S.-led training mission to shore up the capabilities of the battered and bloodied Ukrainian military.

A defence source says the Harper government is expected to announce the deployment of training troops _ possibly over 100. Most of them are expected to be housed at an existing NATO training centre located in Yavoriv, in the western portion of the embattled European country, near the Polish border.

The troops will join American and British soldiers, likely in mid-May.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Defence Minister Jason Kenney are expected to announce the long anticipated move Tuesday at National Defence headquarters ....

 

[The Bread Guy]

First word via PMO - highlights mine:

Prime Minister Stephen Harper today announced that the Government of Canada will provide significant additional military resources to help train and build the capacity of Ukrainian forces personnel. The announcement was made following a briefing on the current security situation in Ukraine with Jason Kenney, Minister of National Defence and Minister for Multiculturalism, and General Tom Lawson, Chief of the Defence Staff.

Canada will be deploying approximately 200 Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) personnel to Ukraine until March 31, 2017, to develop and deliver military training and capacity-building programs for Ukrainian forces personnel. CAF members will be deployed on both a sustained and periodic basis depending on the type of training being conducted. Their activities will include explosive ordnance disposal and improvised explosive device disposal training, military police training, medical training, flight safety training, and logistics system modernization training. Canada will also be providing individual and unit tactics training to Ukrainian National Guard personnel along with the United States.

( .... )

    The training, intended to begin this summer, is in addition to training opportunities offered by the CAF through the Military Training and Cooperation Program. The training will take place primarily at the NATO Partnership for Peace Training and Education Centre in Yavoriv, located in western Ukraine close to the Polish border. Training will also take place at the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence Demining Centre in Kamyanets-Podilsky in western Ukraine.

    In January 2015, Canada formalized the provision of military assistance to Ukraine by joining the United States/Ukraine Joint Commission and agreeing to co-chair, with Ukraine, the Joint Commission's Military Police Subcommittee ....

 

[Chispa]

From the NP National Post:
According to a news release issued Tuesday, Canada will deploy about 200 military personnel to Ukraine until March 31, 2017, “to develop and deliver military training and capacity-building programs for Ukrainian forces personnel.”

Their activities will include: explosive ordnance disposal and improvised explosive device disposal training, military police training, medical training, flight safety training, and logistics system modernization training.

As well, Canadian troops will work alongside United States personnel to provide “individual and unit tactics training” to the Ukrainian National Guard.
Canada will also be sending 22 Harris high-frequency radios, 238 pairs of PVS-7 night vision goggles, 1,134 tactical medical kits, a mobile field hospital structure and some explosive ordnance disposal equipment to Ukraine.


PVS 14 would be recommended however overall sure the Russian will be very upset with Canada’s contribution.

 

[McG]

Looks like avoiding deeply embedded Russian intelligence operators will be one of the principle challenges when we get into this training mission.  I am a little skeptical of the claim our Afghan combat experience is particularly beneficial to this mission.  There are a lot of still relevant lessons that we have from Afghanistan.  However, this is the oft referred peer or near-peer fight; a lot of the related knowledge and skill sets had been allowed to atrophy over the past years as we focused training efforts on the current war.

Russian infiltration of Ukrainian military complicates Canadian training mission
Matthew Fisher
National Post
14 April 2015

Training Ukrainians to fight pro-Russian separatists may turn out to be a far more complicated business for the 200 Canadian soldiers Ottawa announced Tuesday it is sending to Ukraine than it is for the nearly 70 Canadian trainers now on a similar mission in Iraq.

The reason is that Russian intelligence operatives of every kind have so deeply compromised the Ukrainian military that almost nothing they say or do remains secret for long, according to a recent paper for the U.S. Army’s Foreign Military Studies Office at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

Citing unclassified, mostly Russian sources in his essay, “Brothers Disunited: Russia’s Use of Military Power in Ukraine,” Roger McDermott warned of the “penetration of the Ukrainian state intelligence apparatus, the SBU or Security Service of Ukraine by Russian intelligence agencies including GRU (Russian Military Intelligence), the FSB (Federal Security Service and the SVR (Foreign Intelligence Service).”

The infiltration of the Ukrainian military does not only involve formal intelligence operatives. Ukrainians sympathetic to Moscow are believed to be working inside or close to almost all Ukrainian military units, making all aspects of the conflict — including training for war — that much harder for those assisting the Ukrainian side.

Several Canadian officers familiar with the Ukrainian file said they were aware of possible Russian interest in what the Canadian trainers would be doing, but they did not elaborate.

Because of the pervasiveness of Russian intelligence operations in Ukraine, the satellite imagery that Canada has begun to supply to the Ukrainians could also quickly end up back in Moscow. It is thought that the reason that Washington has been unwilling to share its best satellite imagery with the Ukrainians is that it does not want the Russians to find out what its satellite capabilities are.

While Russian espionage will undoubtedly make the Canadian mission harder, it probably does not pose any additional physical risk to the Canadian trainers. As Defence Minister Jason Kenney repeatedly emphasized when announcing the planned summer deployment in Ottawa, the Canadians will be working with U.S. and other NATO trainers far from where the war is being fought in eastern Ukraine. If the situation in Ukraine worsens, Kenney noted, the Canadians can travel to the safety of nearby Poland from where they could be evacuated.

Unlike in Iraq, where Canadian special forces mentors have worked very close to the front lines at times and have been involved in brief firefights, the trainers headed to western Ukraine, mostly from CFB Petawawa, in the Upper Ottawa Valley, will not accompany Ukrainian units into the field to help them identify and target the enemy. Rather, as they did during a much larger Canadian training mission in Afghanistan that followed Canada’s combat mission in Kandahar, the Canadians will do all their teaching on heavily guarded bases.

According to the government, their activities will include: explosive ordnance disposal and improvised explosive device disposal training; military police training; medical training; flight safety training; and logistics system modernization training.

Russia’s intelligence operatives and the Ukrainian sympathizers who work for them will almost certainly try to undermine the Canadian mission by keeping close tabs on what tactics and strategies the Ukrainians are being taught as well as the logistics of the mission.

For their part, the Russians have been training rebel forces for the past year on tactics and strategy and how to manage advanced weapons systems, both inside eastern Ukraine and in southern Russia. But these separatists do not face anywhere near the same level of penetration by Ukrainian intelligence and the eastern Ukrainians who support Kyiv have long ago fled for their lives.

In fact, as McDermott concluded, as well as instigating many battles and supplying and equipping their allies, the Russians made training their allies a top priority long before NATO got around to it.

Western nations including Canada have been very slow to respond to Ukraine’s urgent appeals for weaponry. But the Canadians are particularly well suited for the Ukrainian training mission because of the combat and training experience they got during Canada’s decade in Afghanistan.

As in Afghanistan, the Canadians will have lots of work to do. The Ukrainians, like the Afghans, have put few resources into training or equipping their forces with new gear since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. They are badly in need of help in almost every area.

http://news.nationalpost.com/news/world/russian-infiltration-of-ukrainian-military-complicates-canadian-training-mission

 

[blacktriangle]

However, this is the oft referred peer or near-peer fight; a lot of the related knowledge and skill sets had been allowed to atrophy over the past years as we focused training efforts on the current war.

We certainly won't be providing much ATGM or SAM trg.  ;D

 

[MilEME09]

Sounds like to me the biggest threat to the Ukraine is the enemy within, you can't execute an operation if the enemy knows the plan before the field commander does.

 

[McG]

Polls say that a plurality of Canadians support the Ukraine mission.  Almost 50% support while less than 40% oppose.
If only greater support for military deployments would translate into greater support for military funding and investment.

Almost half of Canadians support Ukraine military mission: new poll
Anglophones, males and Canadians living in Alberta and the prairies all polled more than 50 per cent in support of the mission, while half of those surveyed from Quebec and in lower income groups disapproved.
Craig Lord
The Hill Times
20 Apr 2015

Almost half of Canadians approve of the Canadian Forces’ latest mission to the Ukraine, while 40 per cent disapprove, according to a Forum Research poll released today.

The mission has divided Canadians across regions and demographics, according to the poll. Anglophones, males and Canadians living in Alberta and the prairies all polled more than 50 per cent in support of the mission, while half of those surveyed from Quebec and in lower income groups disapproved.

The most substantial divide is along party lines. Seventy-four per cent of federal Conservative Party supporters were in favour of the mission while half of federal Liberal and NDP voters were in support. The poll surveyed 1,365 Canadian voters and is accurate to within three percentage points 19 times out of 20.

“There’s a huge difference between how Conservative voters feel about this than everyone else,” Forum Research president Lorne Bozinoff told The Hill Times.

He said the Ukrainian mission has become a wedge issue for the governing party.

“The differences are so stark. Those who support this overwhelmingly are voting Conservative. Those who don’t, that’s being spread out amongst the four other parties,” he said, noting that if the numbers stay the way they are, the Conservatives may see a boost at the polls in the coming election. With 1.2 million people in the Ukrainian-Canadian community, it’s part of what Mr. Bozinoff sees as a strategy to accumulate support from smaller communities across Canada.

“In other parts of the country, where the Tories are presumably fishing for votes, this is popular,” he said. “They’re not going to be bested by the other four parties in that.”

Derek Fraser, former Canadian ambassador to Ukraine, told The Hill Times that the government may have been ineffective in communicating the reasons for military involvement in the Ukraine to the rest of Canada, resulting in fragmented support for the mission

“The government speaks of a mission to defend Ukraine, but it doesn’t go into details. And it doesn’t say why one should be helping the Ukrainians,” he said. “There are serious issues at stake in Ukraine and the extent of the seriousness of these issues is generally not understood by the public. … The message appeals to people who are aware of the situation more than it does who people who don’t know about it.”

Prime Minister Stephen Harper (Calgary Southwest, Alta.) announced on April 14 that the government would provide military resources to train Ukrainian forces and help them with capacity building. Canada will deploy 200 soldiers to Ukraine until March 31, 2017, to help with training on explosive ordnance and improvised explosive device disposal, in addition to military police, medical, flight safety and logistics system modernization training.

“Canada continues to stand with the people of Ukraine in the face of the Putin regime’s ongoing aggression. The Canadian military contribution being announced today will help Ukrainian forces personnel to better defend their country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Mr. Harper said in a statement announcing the mission.

NDP national defence critic Jack Harris (St. John’s East, Nfld.) said it’s too soon to say whether this mission deserves support. He criticized the government’s lack of details regarding the mission announced last week.

“We don’t really have answers from the government about exactly where they’re going to be and what they’re going to be doing,” he told The Hill Times. “We have vague assurances that most of them will be very, very far away from any action. Most? Well what about the others that are not part of the most… There’s a lot of questions that need to be answered.”

The NDP will withhold their support of the mission until the party’s questions are addressed, he said.

“We want to see this Cabinet bring it before the House, have a significant debate about it, answer questions that need to be answered before we can support a mission of this nature. That’s what Parliament is for.”

The Forum poll also indicated a growing distaste for military missions by the Canadian Forces.

“Our polling has been showing the appeal of these military adventures waning among voters as they go on. This new one has entered the charts at a lower level of approval than either the mission to Iraq or the extension to Syria did,” Mr. Bozinoff said.

Initial polling of the mission against ISIL in Iraq received 66 per cent support from Canadians. Support has since dropped to only 39 per cent for the Iraq mission and 32 per cent for the mission in Syria.

“Support is usually highest right at the beginning for these military missions,” Mr. Bozinoff said, noting that missions lacking a clear victory objective, and that span for periods longer than intended, usually drop in public support. “With military missions, when you go in, that’s as high as you’re going to get.”

The implications of home-grown terrorism and threats to personal security may have raised the initial support for missions against ISIL, Mr. Bozinoff said, but that public approval has waned significantly.

Mr. Bozinoff said that the vivid imagery of ISIL beheadings and the immediacy of the attack on Parliament Hill last fall also contributed to higher support in Iraq. The lack of these conditions in the Ukrainian mission and the rising levels of the Canadian Forces’ international involvement may have lead to a less emphatic initial public response, he said.

http://www.hilltimes.com/news/news/2015/04/20/almost-half-of-canadians-support-ukraine-military-mission-new-poll/41864

 

[Colin Parkinson]

I suspect most of the training will be in basic section tactics, hasty defenses and a larger focus on basic officer skill sets. I suppose also they dredge up basic radio discipline stuff from the Cold War, although I suspect much of what we learned in Afghanistan will not be applicable. 

 

[toughenough]

The Ukrainians, like the Afghans, have put few resources into training or equipping their forces with new gear since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. They are badly in need of help in almost every area.

http://news.nationalpost.com/news/world/russian-infiltration-of-ukrainian-military-complicates-canadian-training-mission

91? Sounds like a lot of their kit will be newer than ours  >