Canada's Support to Ukraine in Crisis and Armed Conflict
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CANADA’S SUPPORT TO UKRAINE IN CRISIS AND ARMED CONFLICT Report of the Standing Committee on National Defence Stephen Fuhr, Chair DECEMBER 2017 42nd PARLIAMENT, 1st SESSION Published under the authority of the Speaker of the House of Commons SPEAKER’S PERMISSION The proceedings of the House of Commons and its Committees are hereby made available to provide greater public access. The parliamentary privilege of the House of Commons to control the publication and broadcast of the proceedings of the House of Commons and its Committees is nonetheless reserved. All copyrights therein are also reserved. Reproduction of the proceedings of the House of Commons and its Committees, in whole or in part and in any medium, is hereby permitted provided that the reproduction is accurate and is not presented as official. This permission does not extend to reproduction, distribution or use for commercial purpose of financial gain. 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For greater certainty, this permission does not affect the prohibition against impeaching or questioning the proceedings of the House of Commons in courts or otherwise. The House of Commons retains the right and privilege to find users in contempt of Parliament if a reproduction or use is not in accordance with this permission. Also available on the House of Commons website at the following address: www.ourcommons.ca CANADA'S SUPPORT TO UKRAINE IN CRISIS AND ARMED CONFLICT Report of the Standing Committee on National Defence Stephen Fuhr Chair DECEMBER 2017 42nd PARLIAMENT, 1st SESSION NOTICE TO READER Reports from committee presented to the House of Commons Presenting a report to the House is the way a committee makes public its findings and recommendations on a particular topic. Substantive reports on a subject-matter study usually contain a synopsis of the testimony heard, the recommendations made by the committee, as well as the reasons for those recommendations. To assist the reader: A list of acronyms used in this report is available on page ix STANDING COMMITTEE ON NATIONAL DEFENCE CHAIR Stephen Fuhr VICE-CHAIRS James Bezan Randall Garrison MEMBERS Leona Alleslev Yves Robillard Darren Fisher Sherry Romanado* Mark Gerretsen Sven Spengemann Randy Hoback David Yurdiga Jean Rioux* OTHER MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT WHO PARTICIPATED Rachel Blaney Pierre Paul-Hus Mike Bossio Michel Picard Cheryl Gallant Mark Warawa Cheryl Hardcastle Kate Young Bryan May Robert-Falcon Ouellette * Non-voting member, pursuant to Standing Order 104(5). iii CLERK OF THE COMMITTEE Elizabeth Kingston LIBRARY OF PARLIAMENT Parliamentary Information and Research Service Martin Auger, Analyst Stéphanie Le Saux-Farmer, Analyst iv THE STANDING COMMITTEE ON NATIONAL DEFENCE has the honour to present its EIGHTH REPORT Pursuant to its mandate under Standing Order 108(2), the Committee has studied Canada and the Ukraine Crisis and has agreed to report the following: v TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Acronyms .................................................................................................................................... ix CANADA’S SUPPORT TO UKRAINE IN CRISIS AND ARMED CONFLICT ............................ 1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................... 1 OVERVIEW OF THE CRISIS IN UKRAINE ................................................................................ 4 1. Ceasefire Violations and Casualties .............................................................................. 5 2. Human Rights Violations .................................................................................................. 6 3. The Russian Threat ............................................................................................................. 7 4. Hybrid Warfare ..................................................................................................................... 9 5. Disinformation Campaigns and Cyber-Attacks ..................................................... 11 CANADIAN SUPPORT FOR UKRAINE .................................................................................... 13 1. Reforming the Ukrainian Military .............................................................................. 13 2. Canada and the Defence Reform Advisory Board ................................................ 15 3. Canadian Military Assistance to Ukraine and its Armed Forces .................... 18 4. Canada and the Fight against Corruption in Ukraine ......................................... 21 CONFLICT RESOLUTION AND PREVENTION IN UKRAINE .......................................... 25 1. Strengthening Sanctions against Russia .................................................................. 26 2. Supporting the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe’s Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine ............................................... 28 3. Contributing to a United Nations Peacekeeping Mission to Ukraine............ 30 STRENGTHENING CANADA–UKRAINE DEFENCE RELATIONS .................................. 34 1. Supplying Lethal Weapons and Defensive Military Equipment ..................... 34 2. Adding Ukraine to the Automatic Firearms Country Control List ................. 38 3. Providing Intelligence and Satellite Imagery ......................................................... 42 4. Strengthening Canada–Ukraine Defence Industry Collaboration .................. 43 5. Other Forms of Canadian Assistance ........................................................................ 46 CONCLUDING REMARKS ........................................................................................................... 49 vii LIST OF RECOMMENDATIONS ................................................................................................. 52 Appendix A: The Conflict in Ukraine .................................................................................................... 55 Appendix B: Operation UNIFIER – Canadian Troops ................................................................... 57 Appendix C: Ukrainian Forces: Human Strength ........................................................................... 59 Appendix D: Ukrainian Forces: Equipment Strength ................................................................... 61 Appendix E: List of Witnesses ................................................................................................................ 63 Appendix F: Travel to Yavoriv and Kyiv, Ukraine from September 23 to 26, 2017 ........ 65 Appendix G: List of Briefs ......................................................................................................................... 67 Request for Government Response ..................................................................................................... 69 Dissenting Opinion of the New Democratic Party of Canada .................................................... 71 viii LIST OF ACRONYMS AFCCL Automatic Firearms Country Control List ATO Anti-Terror Operation CAF Canadian Armed Forces DND Department of National Defence DPR Donetsk People’s Republic DRAB Defence Reform Advisory Board EU European Union GAC Global Affairs Canada GDP Gross Domestic Product IED Improvised Explosive Device IISS International Institute for Strategic Studies IPSC International Peacekeeping and Security Centre JTF-U Joint Task Force - Ukraine LPR Luhansk People’s Republic MANPAD Man-Portable Air Defence System MTCP Military Training and Cooperation Program NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization NCO Non-Commissioned Officer NDDN House of Commons Standing Committee on National Defence OSCE Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe OSI Operational Stress Injuries PTSD Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder RCMP Royal Canadian Mounted Police R2MR Road to Mental Readiness SDB Strategic Defence Bulletin SMM Special Monitoring Mission UCC Ukrainian Canadian Congress UN United Nations ix CANADA’S SUPPORT TO UKRAINE IN CRISIS AND ARMED CONFLICT INTRODUCTION Ukraine has been engaged in an armed conflict against the Russian Federation for almost four years. What began as a Russian invasion and illegal occupation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in March 2014 has since become a brutal and complicated conflict of attrition between the armed forces of Ukraine and pro-Russian separatist groups – armed, supplied, led and reinforced by Russia – in the Donbas region (Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts) of eastern Ukraine. The conflict has been characterized by sporadic escalations of violence, with ceasefires reached and then repeatedly broken. To date, more than 10,000 people have been killed and almost three times as many have been injured1 in what Dr. Lubomyr Luciuk,