Canada clutches its pearls while Ukraine burns
As some Canadians fret not every Ukrainian soldier trained by Canada's military is a human rights activist, those Ukrainian troops fight to their deaths to protect their families.
While women and children are being butchered by Putin’s bastards in Ukraine, Canada’s media is busy clutching its patrician pearls over whether some of Ukraine’s soldiers think unpleasant thoughts. In a recent article posted online, CTV News joined the cohort of Canadian media utterly shocked and outraged the real world isn’t all pastels and Gershwin music.
With mounting evidence pointing to the Canadian Armed Forces having trained members of Ukraine’s military who are also reported to be part of extremist groups, experts say Ottawa needs to strongly bolster its investigation and vetting of the soldiers it trains and arms in the embattled country.
Why were Canadian soldiers in Ukraine?
In 2014, Russian president Vladimir Putin ordered his military to invade Ukraine and seize Crimea by force of arms. He also sent Russian soldiers, dressed as locals, into Ukraine’s Donbas region to foment an artificial pro-Russia “insurgency” there. This fake insurgency has produced years of bloody conflict in that region of Ukraine ever since.
In response to this unlawful invasion, the Canadian government in 2015 joined an international coalition to help train Ukraine’s military to better defend their country against further Russian aggression. This was a strategic political decision made by government. Canada’s Armed Forces were tasked to train Ukraine’s army and they did so in an operation called “UNIFIER.”
A contingent of 200 to 400 Canadian soldiers based in Ukraine conducted this training. Between January 2015 and January 2022, they trained over 33,000 Ukrainian soldiers – who were selected for training by the government of Ukraine.
A recent investigation by Radio Canada into documents related to Canada’s mission in Ukraine found evidence that soldiers from the Azov regiment, identified by patches on their clothing and other insignias, have participated in training with the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) as recently as 2020.
What is the Azov Battalion?
After Russia’s 2014 invasion and occupation of the Donbas region, a militia of locals loyal to Ukraine was formed to fight the occupiers. This ad hoc force called itself the “Azov Battalion” – after the adjacent Sea of Azov. They pursued an undeniably “nationalist” agenda in that they were pro-Ukraine, anti-Russia. There have also been credible reports the Azov Battalion harboured members with radical, racist views. Some news media have described them as “Nazis,” and Putin’s propagandists jumped on this theme, describing them – and, by extension, all of Ukraine’s military and government – as “Nazis.”
Following the recent re-invasion of Ukraine by Russia, the “Azov Battalion” appears to have been absorbed into the Ukrainian military proper and renamed, according to some reports, “Azov Regiment.” In a fight for survival, even the impure make welcome comrades. Witness: the alliance of Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt with Joseph Stalin in the face of Hitler’s juggernaut quest for world domination.
I have no idea whether some or even all members of the Azov Battalion cum Regiment are motivated by racism, or subscribe to neo-Nazi ideology. I am told the Canadian Army did not train the unit. But, there are some suggestions that individuals from the Azov Battalion were trained by the Canadians. This seems possible.
Certainly, it seems some Ukrainians associated with the Azov Battalion have bragged on social media that they were trained by Canadians. The training Canada and other western nations provided to Ukraine’s soldiers was excellent and well-received by the Ukrainian troops. As a former soldier myself, I can attest it’s not at all uncommon for soldiers anywhere to exaggerate their experiences – even to claim “special operations” type training and experience they don’t actually have. Could that explain why some members of the Azov Battalion say the Canadians trained them? I don’t know.
Did Canadian soldiers do something wrong?
No.
The government of Canada decided (rightly, I believe) that training Ukraine’s army to deter and defend against further Russian aggression was in Canada’s best interest. The government ordered the Canadian Armed Forces to deliver this training.
Canada’s army did not select who they trained – that was Ukraine’s responsibility, and properly so. There are reports Canada’s Armed Forces pushed back on the idea of training the Azov Battalion. But, ultimately it’s not their job to select the trainees.
Nor is it the Canadian army’s job to do deep background checks on foreign soldiers it trains. First off, there’s no realistic way to do this. Ukraine holds all the records of the trainees it selected for training – if they purposefully selected “Nazis” for training, it seems unlikely they’ll cough up the evidence. Even if they did, there’s simply no time or capacity to do “deep vetting” on 33,000 Ukrainian soldiers in the short time between selection and training.
Second, the point of the training was to enable Ukraine to fight a life-or-death war against a vastly larger and better equipped Russian military that is globally recognized for its brutal inhumanity. This was an existential mission for Ukraine. Canada agreed. The personalities of Ukrainian soldiers attending the training seems far less important in comparison. As it turns out, this training was timely indeed – those soldiers, “Nazis” or otherwise are currently fighting Russian invaders. The training Canada provided made this possible.
Canada also trained and mentored tens of thousands of Afghan soldiers. Many of those soldiers held political beliefs and personal convictions most Canadians might find abhorrent. Some of these Afghan soldiers – and police – turned out to be Taliban sympathizers. A few even ended up fighting against the Afghan government and Canadian soldiers. But tens of thousands did not. They simply fought and died for their country, our ally. The training Canada provided made that possible.
In 2007-2008, I developed and implemented an EU-funded and UN-delivered training program for Afghan Border Police officers in the remote northern province of Badakhshan. Many of the police officers we trained were not very nice people. But, they were the only people willing to do the job and, by and large, they did the best they could. The training we provided made that possible.
You don’t have to be a saint to fight for your country in a war for survival.
This is a fight to the death
When Putin announced in February that Ukraine does not currently, and has never historically existed as a sovereign nation, he articulated his plan to reintegrate Ukraine by force into a resurgent “Russian Empire.” He relied on the fictional insurgency he created in the Donbas region, and his decade-long propaganda narrative of the “nazification” of Ukraine to rationalize his invasion.
Putin intentionally perpetuates the myths of rampant Naziism in Ukraine. Is some of the western concern over the Azov Battalion driven, at least in part, by this propaganda? I don’t know.
One thing we must remember, is the simple fact Ukraine elected, with 73% of the vote, a Jew as its current president. Ukraine was brutally oppressed by the real Nazis in the Second World War. Ukraine is hardly a Nazi state. It has every right to choose what soldiers it trains and deploys to protect its sovereignty.
On February 24, Putin ordered his tanks, warplanes and warships into Ukraine. Russia has been wantonly slaughtering Ukrainian soldiers and private citizens, including helpless seniors, pregnant mothers and children every day since. Thousands of innocent civilians have been murdered at Putin’s orders. Entire cities have been razed. Over five million Ukrainians have been forced to abandon their homes to seek refuge in neighbouring countries.
This is an existential fight for Ukraine. Every member of the Ukrainian military – and tens of thousands of citizen volunteers – are fighting for their lives, the lives of their families, and the future of their nation and its emerging democracy. For these fighters – including members of the Azov Regiment – this is a fight to the death against the horrors of the Russian military.
Meanwhile Canada’s pampered patricians fret over their self-image
CTVNews.ca asked the government whether it would re-evaluate its special relationship with Ukraine, its training mandates for Op. UNIFIER or review the lethal aid being sent to Ukraine in light of the recent reports.
Even as Ukrainians are being slaughtered by Putin’s army, Canada’s media wants to know if our soldiers did enough paperwork to ensure not a single offensive Ukrainian patriot was trained to fight the butchers. This “one is too many” cohort is self-entitled and over-privileged. They are the worst of Canada’s fortunate citizenry.
They’ve likely never suffered the indignity of a lukewarm shower, let alone the brutal terror of wondering if today is the day your mother will be raped and butchered, or your kids will be snuffed out of existence in an instant and without even a thought by a brutal invader.
In the face of such horror, it’s hard to spare much pity for any Canadian whose cotton candy worldview has been pierced by the cold hard reality of total war.
Give me a break. Try some perspective.
Well said Mark.
self-entitled and over-privileged.....very, very true.