William Fletcher
© SHAUGHN BUTTS / EDMONTON JOURNALCol. William Fletcher spoke to media on behalf of the 30 soldiers from the 3rd Canadian Division.
Canada has deployed fresh troops from Edmonton to help train soldiers returning from the front line of Ukraine's protracted counter-insurgency battle against pro-Russian forces on its eastern flank.

Thirty Edmonton-based members of 3rd Canadian Division's 1 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group flew from Edmonton International Airport early Thursday as part of a six-month deployment to help improve the embattled European nation's military capacity through training.

They will be joined by 72 of their CFB Shilo counterparts and will replace half of the 200 Canadian troops currently on the ground in western Ukraine, as part of the joint military Operation UNIFIER that began in the summer of last year and is scheduled to end in March 2017.

Brigade group commander Col. William Fletcher said training will cover everything from small unit tactics to linguistics while also "imparting some professionalism and Canadian expertise to Ukrainians."


Comment: Good luck! If there's one thing Ukraine's troops lack, it's professionalism.


"There is no doubt they are brave, obviously they have been fighting an extended counter-insurgency battle, but what we are doing is bringing the professionalism, experience and skill sets that Canadians are known for across the world," Fletcher said.

Fletcher said the Ukraine training regime had been a "successful mission so far."

"All of the Ukrainian forces that have gone through the training ... have come out better for it in the end," he said.

"They've got some really hard won experience over the last few years (but) what they haven't had is the benefit of NATO standard training, tactics, techniques, procedures and lessons learned."

NATO's involvement in the troubled region has escalated since the start of the year as Russia President Vladimir Putin's sabre rattling intensifies and Moscow continues to mobilize its military.

Around 150 NATO-backed military exercises — some of which have included Canadian troops — have been planned for Eastern Europe this year and in June, 30,000 troops were deployed in Poland for the largest training exercise since the Cold War in a bid to ease nervousness in the region.

The Baltic nations of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia are particular troubled with the prospect of the Russian army massing at their borders.

Those three nations came under the protective umbrella of NATO since joining in 2004 and under that agreement, Canada, along with other member countries, have committed to military action if they come under attack.

But Operation UNIFIER troops will not be taking part in any military exercises or training outside of Ukraine, Fletcher said.

Maj. Geoff Tyrell, being deployed in Ukraine as a member of 1 Service Battalion, said it is important that Canadian Forces continue to work with "a number of allies and partners in that part of the world" so as to "remain interoperable with them and show them we support their own interests."

"Like any modern army we find the more we interoperate with our partners and allies the more experience we gain from it," he said.