Ukraine's PM to visit Canada, seek ammunition, armored vehicles

He said this in an interview with The Globe and Mail, according to Ukrinform.

Shmyhal is visiting Canada in the coming weeks but for security reasons the Ukrainian government is not divulging the date of the trip.

"Now, we need heavy armored vehicles. And we need more artillery shells: ammunition for howitzers and ammunition for tanks. […] It's crucially important for the organization of our counteroffensive," he said.

According to the news outlet, the Canadian government's 2023 budget, unveiled in March, offered a new $2.4 billion loan for Ukraine but little in the way of additional military aid. In the past 12 months, however, Ottawa has provided more than $1 billion in military gear to Kyiv.

Shmyhal said he is not concerned about the lack of new military aid allocated for Ukraine in the federal budget and remains hopeful that Canada will provide more military aid anyway, among other forms of assistance.

According to Shmyhal, the Ukrainian government would also like the Canadian government to offer war risk insurance to Canadian companies investing in Ukraine as part of an effort to support rebuilding and foreign investment there.

Shmyhal noted that Ukraine needs countries such as Canada to help pave the way for more foreign investment – and that includes special insurance to reduce the financial risk of operating in a war zone.

"We will need additional support in war risk insurance because no investors will come to Ukraine if the governments of our partners will not support, and will not insure [against] war risks in Ukraine," Shmyhal said.

He said he will be talking to Canada about what Ottawa might do.

"So if a Canadian company will decide to invest money into Ukraine, we will ask the Canadian government to create some mechanism to support Canadian investments," he said.

Shmyhal praised Canada's assistance since Russia launched its full-scale military assaults on Ukraine last February.

"We have perfect relations between Ukraine and Canada," he said and thanked Ottawa for the more than $5.4 billion in aid it has received from the Canadian government since the conflict began.

Shmyhal said his visit will include signing cooperation agreements with a Canadian company in the nuclear industry – he did not provide more details – and noted that Kyiv has already signed deals with foreign firms including some from Canada.

"I hope that for Canadian officials and Canadian people, it also will be important that despite the war, Ukraine has a great will to realize all the reforms and to be a European, civilized country with all European standards, rules and most importantly values. We wouldn't like to be part of the [former] Soviet Union or the Russian Empire," Shmyhal said.