The Ministry of National Defence of Canada has announced that Ukraine can freely use Canadian tanks and armoured vehicles in Russia. This was reported by Komersant ukrainskyi
reports with reference to CBC News.
Canada has donated eight Leopard 2A4 tanks, several dozen armoured combat support vehicles and hundreds of armoured patrol vehicles, as well as several M-777 howitzers to Ukraine.
A CNN news report filmed on Thursday at the Ukrainian border showed a Canadian Senator patrol vehicle crossing the border into Russia. This raised questions about the mode of use of the weapons provided by Canada, as it is known that Ukraine’s partners limit Ukraine to the border zone in Russia, which includes Kursk region.
Canada’s response was quite unexpected.
“Ukrainians know best how to defend their homeland, and we must support their potential,”
– said André-Anne Poulin, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Defence, in a statement to the media.
“Canada does not place any geographical restrictions on the use of the military equipment we are donating to Ukraine,” she said,
– she clarified.
Poulin added that Canada’s donations to Ukraine always comply with the Arms Trade Treaty, an international agreement aimed at reducing illegal arms transfers and human rights abuses.
While it is unclear how much, if any, of the Canadian donated equipment was in the hands of specially equipped Ukrainian brigades when they stormed the border on 6 August, the statement clearly affirms Ukraine’s right to use Canadian-donated equipment in Russia.
Western weapons and permits for their use
As is well known, the United States(followed by Germany) allows the use of weapons provided by them only for strikes on the border territories of Russia. This permission was granted by US President Joe Biden only at the end of May 2024, and before that, strikes on Russian territory with US weapons were generally prohibited.
However, closer to the end of June, the US side unofficially stated that the restrictions “do not apply to geography or a certain radius”. This means that Ukraine is allegedly able to strike at those facilities and territories from which attacks on Ukraine are directly directed, even if they are deeper than the border areas.
According to experts, border strikes will not change the situation at the front, so Zelenskyy is asking his partners for permission to use their weapons on Russian territory. According to Latvian Foreign Minister Baiba Braže, some Western countries have already given such permission. Presumably, she was also referring to Canada.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces’ Kursk offensive and Western weapons
Classical military strategy involves trying to transfer combat operations to the enemy’s territory as quickly as possible, so the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ offensive in the Kursk region of Russia is an absolutely legitimate military step. There is little information about the details “from the fields”, but the few photos and videos show that the Ukrainians are using Western equipment, among other things.
The White House and Brussels were quick to state that they consider the actions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces to be entirely legitimate, and that Ukraine can use the weapons they provide at its discretion. However, neither has officially lifted the restrictions on its use.
For example, Germany has said that Ukraine can use the weapons it provides however and wherever it wants, but it is known that Germany has not supplied Ukraine with any long-range weapons.
The UK has not changed its position either: Ukraine can use its weapons as it wishes, but this does not apply to the only long-range British missile, the Storm Shadow.
It is the same with American weapons. Ukraine can use HIMARS, which can hit Russia at 80 kilometres, but not, for example, ATACMS, which has a range of 300 kilometres.
Even after the start of the Kursk offensive, President Zelenskyy stated that he continued to push his partners to lift restrictions on the use of long-range weapons provided by them.