Today, at the 25th Ukraine Defense Contact Group (UDCG) meeting, the Honourable Bill Blair, Minister of National Defence, announced $440 million in military assistance to Ukraine.
Ammunition remains one of Ukraine's highest priorities and today's announcement includes the contribution of $200 million to Czechia's initiative to procure and deliver large-calibre ammunition for Ukraine. This contribution comes in addition to over $53 million announced last year for the Czech initiative, which has already provided approximately 11,500 rounds of large-calibre ammunition to Ukraine. An additional $50 million will also be made available for procurement of various calibres of ammunition from Canadian industry.
Minister Blair also committed $100 million to the Danish Model to support the production of military drones by Ukraine's domestic defence industry. Drones have become critical in this conflict and Ukraine's defence industry is excelling in innovation and experimentation in this field. This contribution builds upon the $3 million 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 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 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 in military assistance to Ukraine announced at the 2024 NATO Summit, and the $1.6 billion announced in Budget 2024. This brings the total value of Canadian military assistance to $4.5 billion since Russia's full-scale invasion began.
Minister Blair also provided an update on the ongoing military assistance to Ukraine:
- a batch of approximately 1,300 CRV-7 rocket warheads was delivered in December 2024, following a delivery of over 2,000 CRV-7 rocket motors in September 2024;
- the first deliveries of Armoured Combat Support Vehicles arrived in the fall of 2024 and all training has been completed. Forty additional vehicles will be delivered between May and December 2025.
