Canada will be sending more than 40 more combat engineers to Europe to assist Polish efforts to train Ukrainian soldiers, Defence Minister Anita Anand announced Tuesday..Anand is currently in Poland meeting with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Defence of Poland Mariusz Błaszczak. The two ministers signed an agreement to enhance and strengthen bilateral defence cooperation between Canada and Poland.."Poland and Canada have both demonstrated leadership in supporting Ukraine as it defends itself against Russia’s illegal and unjustifiable invasion — and the memorandum of understanding and training announced today will help us reinforce the rules-based international order that keeps both of our countries safe," Anand said..The Canadian Armed Forces already trained more than 30,000 Ukrainian military and security personnel since 2015, but aspects of the training efforts were paused since Russia invaded the country in February..Anand told a news conference in Warsaw, Poland, the combat engineers would assist the Polish military with training Ukrainians for "engineer reconnaissance, explosives, mining and de-mining.".The agreement comes as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is set to ask the leaders of the G7 to supply the country with more air defence weapons. Russia rained down cruise missiles on major cities across Ukraine over the weekend, hitting civil infrastructure such as power stations, as well as parks, tourist sites and busy rush-hour streets..On Tuesday morning, Russia continued to launch long-range airstrikes on Ukraine's energy and military infrastructure..The missiles were a response to a Saturday Ukrainian attack on the Kerch Strait road-and-rail bridge, which connects Russia to the former Ukrainian territory of Crimea. Russian President Vladimir Putin is facing pressure at home to ramp up the conflict, as his forces have lost ground since the start of September. .On Tuesday, Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov cautioned the West against escalating the conflict.."We warn and hope that they realize the danger of uncontrolled escalation in Washington and other Western capitals," he said.
