According to the CBC, most of the 200 Canadian military trainers stationed in Western Ukraine will return home.
Canada’s Department of Homeland Defense has ordered the withdrawal of some Canadian soldiers involved in various missions in Iraq and Ukraine because of the coronavirus pandemic. This was reported by CBC on Thursday.
According to its sources, most of the 200 Canadian military instructors stationed in Western Ukraine will return home. The instructors stationed in Iraq will be partially redeployed to the Canadian air base in Kuwait. Accurate data on the number of displaced military personnel is not available. A high-ranking official of the Defense Ministry explained to the TV channel that such actions of the agency are related to the coronavirus pandemic.
Earlier it was reported that there are about 800 Canadian soldiers in the Middle East, 500 of which are deployed in Iraq as part of the NATO military instructors mission, command of which is entrusted to Canada until November 2020.
Since 2015, about 200 Canadian military instructors have been permanently deployed in Ukraine as part of the Canadian Armed Forces’ operation Unifier. They are engaged in training soldiers and officers of the Ukrainian army at the Yavoriv training ground in Lviv region.
The first case of coronavirus infection in Canada was recorded on January 15, so far more than 10 thousand people have been infected, 127 died, more than 1.6 thousand were cured. Cases of infection were recorded in 12 out of 13 Canadian regions. Only the Arctic region of Nunavut remains unaffected by the virus.