International Development Minister Harjit Sajan said Canada was looking for more ways to help the humanitarian crisis in Eastern Europe, with about 100 troops stationed in Poland to help refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine.
“The work that continues is quite extensive, but as you know, the needs are also quite large given the atrocities that are taking place on the ground in Ukraine,” Sajan said in an interview with Rosemary Barton Live on Sunday.
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Sajan told CBC chief political correspondent Rosemary Barton that Canada is coordinating with the United Nations and humanitarian agencies such as the Red Cross to provide additional aid and materials in the form of hygiene kits, mattresses and tents.
“We are trying to move as many resources as possible,” he said. “The situation – we all know how terrible it is, how vast it is.”
About 100 Canadian troops are in Poland to help with the crisis, and Sajan confirmed that one of their main tasks will be to help process refugees. Nearly five million Ukrainians have fled the country since the start of the war in late February, with the majority moving to neighboring Poland.
WATCH The Minister for International Development for Canadian Aid to Ukraine:
What Canadian forces will be asked to do in Poland
Rosemary Barton Lives spoke with International Development Minister Harjit Sajan about Ottawa’s decision to deploy Canadian troops in Poland this week on a humanitarian mission to help refugees fleeing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 7:18
Canada sent both military and humanitarian aid during the conflict, and Sajan drew attention to the humanitarian situation.
“We have a really big medical hospital that we were ready to open. It turns out that the full hospital is not needed, but parts of [it] it will be, “he said, noting where this infrastructure will be sent is being determined.
Sajan said Canada is coordinating with humanitarian agencies to make sure aid actually gets where it needs to go. Repeated attempts to create humanitarian corridors in some of the country’s most dangerous parts – such as the south near the port city of Mariupol – have failed.
“The United Nations and other NGOs are putting their lives at risk to secure supplies because the Russians have not cooperated fully,” Sajan said.
In a statement issued earlier this week, the conservative opposition criticized the government’s response to the refugee crisis, saying it had long called on Ukrainians to call for visa-free travel to Canada.
“Canada did not have to wait until the 50th day of the war in Ukraine to bring additional resources to Eastern Europe to help our Ukrainian friends and family flee the conflict,” conservative immigration critic Yasraj Singh Halan said in a statement.
Ukrainians need “as many weapons as needed”: Panetta
In a separate interview, former US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta told Barton that the war in Ukraine is now entering a “critical” third phase, where Russia is now focusing its efforts on securing territory in southern and eastern Ukraine after failing to take Kyiv and then launch a destructive campaign.
The focus, Panetta said, still needs to be on the United States and the Allies providing Ukrainians with “as many weapons as they need” to help them fight.
“We have all gained great confidence in the ability of Ukrainians to fight bravely and courageously and to really be able to defend themselves against a force that is undoubtedly superior to them,” he said.
WATCH Leon Panetta discusses the course of the war in Ukraine:
Russia-Ukraine war reaches “critical third phase”: former US Secretary of Defense
Rosemary Barton spoke live with former US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta about Russia’s changing strategy in its invasion of Ukraine and why this next phase of the eastern flank war is critical. 8:11
Former Secretary of Defense, who also served as CIA director and chief of staff to former US President Bill Clinton, weighed in on decisions made by current US President Joe Biden and others this week that Russia’s actions in Ukraine were genocide.
“It really comes close to what I would think is the definition of genocide, which is an effort by the Russians to basically destroy the Ukrainians,” he said.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said this week that it was “absolutely right” that more people called Russia’s actions genocide.
Asked how he believes the war in Ukraine can be stopped, Panetta said he believes it is important for Ukraine to continue to fight and ultimately negotiate a solution.
“Putin is a bully, and the only thing he really understands is power.”
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