Canada to Train Ukrainian Police as Conflict With Russia Worsens

 Ukrainian PM Arseniy Yatsenyuk welcomes his Canadian counterpart Stephen Harper in Kiev on June 6. Photographer: Anatoli Stepanov/AFP/Getty Images

Canada will send officers and provide funding to bolster the Ukrainian police force, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said, his country’s latest show of support for Ukraine in its conflict with Russia.
Harper made the announcement Saturday alongside Ukraine Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk in Kiev during a one-day visit before the G7 summit in Germany, and as one observer group warns of a worsening conflict in Ukraine.
The C$5 million ($4 million) in Canadian funding for a 10-month program, and as many as 10 training officers, will help “strengthen the sovereignty and help the reform effort of a free and democratic Ukraine,” Harper said at a police training academy in Kiev.
The Canadian pledge came as hostilities between Russia and Ukraine flared up once again, according to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Despite a cease-fire signed in February, there were 500 explosions in the embattled Ukrainian city of Donetsk within one hour on the night of June 4, OSCE spokesman Michael Bociurkiw said in Kiev.
“In the period of about an hour, our observers in downtown Donetsk heard over 500 explosions,” Bociurkiw said. “I can’t remember in all these months seeing that type of intensity.”
While it was unclear who was instigating the aggression, OSCE officials witnessed heavy machinery moving west, toward Ukraine, and the organization’s drones had cameras jammed by “sophisticated” technology, he said. The February cease-fire agreement had included a deal to pull back heavy equipment.
“Both sides now have quite heavy concentrations of heavy weaponry close to each other,” Bociurkiw said. “So it looks like they have not abandoned the military option in favor of a diplomatic or political ones.”

Worsening Situation

“Right now we’re on the cusp of a very worsening humanitarian situation,” he said.
Harper is scheduled to meet Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko later Saturday, as the Canadian leader begins a seven-day, four-country tour that includes the G7 summit. Saturday’s visit was Harper’s third to Ukraine since March 2014.
Canada and the West should urge Ukraine’s president to “enter into face-to-face negotiations” with leaders in the embattled region, including Donetsk, to end the conflict, Russia’s ambassador to Canada, Alexander Darchiev, told Canadian broadcaster Global News, referring to the Ukraine government as “the party of war.”

Previous Pledges

The Canadian funding is to support a “large-scale reform initiative to build a new civilian police force” in five Ukrainian cities until March 2016 and “change the way that police interact with the public,” Harper’s government said in a written statement.
Canada has previously pledged C$400 million in loans, C$202 million in developmental aid and sent non-lethal military equipment to the country, the government said. It also plans to deploy 200 Canadian soldiers in western Ukraine, near the Polish border.
“Obviously Russia’s ongoing aggression, its direct involvement and engineering of this conflict is of serious concern to the government of Canada,” Harper said on Thursday in Toronto. “That’s why I’m once again going to Ukraine to show our solidarity with the people of that country as they struggle to maintain their freedom.”
The world must “maintain its strong condemnation of the actions of the Putin regime,” he said.
“Whether it takes five months or 50 years, this country and the western world, the free world, will never recognize the occupation of Crimea or any other Ukrainian soil by Russia,” he said.
Harper will leave Ukraine Saturday and travel to Germany for the G7 meeting, before stops in Poland and Italy. He’ll return to Canada June 11.
“The Ukrainian issue will be high on the agenda” at the G7, Yatsenyuk said on Saturday. “Canada is one of the strongest allies of Ukraine.”