Canada sending 20K rounds of artillery to Ukraine as Russia invasion hits 3-month mark

Canada is sending $98-million worth of artillery rounds compatible with NATO weaponry to Ukraine as the country’s defence against the Russian invasion hits the three-month mark.

Defence Minister Anita Anand made the announcement on Tuesday.

She said the latest aid package from Canada will send Ukrainians some 20,000 rounds of artillery that will work with the weapons sent by NATO allies so far, including with the M-777 Howitzer missile launchers sent by Canada earlier in the spring.

It will also include fuses and charge bags.

“Work is already underway to deliver this aid to Ukraine as quickly as possible,” Anand said, adding the package follows conversations with her U.S. counterpart Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Monday, along with counterparts from the roughly 40 nations directly supporting Ukraine.

Russian forces are intensifying their assault in eastern regions of Ukraine, particularly the Donbas region.

That comes after the siege of Ukraine’s port city Mariupol reduced the city to devastation, with Russians now holding Ukrainian fighters as prisoners of war following an attempted evacuation.

Russian fighters retreated from the area around the capital of Kyiv in March, facing fierce Ukrainian resistance that has stunned the world and spurred pressure on Western democracies to support the country’s military and civilian fighters against the invasion.

Canadian leaders have repeatedly billed the stakes in the war as an existential threat to the laws and global institutions created in the aftermath of the Second World War — which are intricately tied to Canada’s own security and stability as a trading nation and non-military power.

The Canadian government allocated a further $500 million for military aid to Ukraine in the most recent federal budget on top of more than $1 billion so far in addition to successive rounds of economic sanctions.

The aid package announced on Tuesday comes from that newly-allocated $500 million.