Dozens of Canadian soldiers boarded a plane bound for Poland on Friday for what their commander said was an intense but rewarding mission to help Ukrainians fleeing Russian aggression.
The approximately 80 soldiers who took off from Edmonton and another 20 from Trenton, Ont., will provide humanitarian aid at reception centers across Poland, said Major Ryan Pridmore, company commander of the 3rd Infantry Battalion. Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light.
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They, along with a Canadian medical unit, will support the Polish Territorial Defense Force on a two-month mission.
“Our soldiers are extremely happy to be deployed,” he said. “That’s what we train for. That’s why we do this job. Our soldiers are ready to step in and help make a difference.
Once the boots are on the ground, Pridmore says, he expects the soldiers to get to work immediately.
“We have chaplains to provide spiritual guidance and also mental health professionals when refugees arrive at reception centers,” said Pridmore, who previously served in Afghanistan and Kuwait.
Some of the other soldiers have linguistic backgrounds, he added.
He said Canada is ready to send about 50 additional troops to help support, coordinate and resettle Ukrainian refugees in Poland.
“We have a team there that is laying the groundwork for us not to be blindsided, but it will definitely be a pretty quick start for the business once we get out there.”
On Thursday, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said in Calgary that it was appropriate to declare the Russian occupation a genocide, as US President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau have said, since thousands of Ukrainians were killed and brutalized.
Freeland pointed to a “frightening document” on a Russian website published 10 days ago “that effectively exposed a plan for genocide in Ukraine, which called for suffering, punishment of people who, in the opinion of this document , had been wrongly chosen and wrongly described as Ukrainians.
“It required the removal of the word Ukraine,” said Freeland, who is also Canada’s finance minister.
The Department of National Defense said in a press release that the soldiers will also work with Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada and “act as a liaison with the Polish Armed Forces … to support the temporary residence of Ukrainians who wish to work and study”. in Canada “.
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On Friday, some soldiers in Edmonton joked about their nervousness, while others slept in the airport lounge before catching their flight.
“I’ve been on a number of missions before where I’ve seen people go out overseas, and this one hits a lot of people hard because some of the people in the task force have Ukrainian ancestry,” he said. said the lieutenant. Kevin Moffat, Canadian Armed Forces Public Affairs Officer.
“I was very pleased to see that morale was exceptionally high and based on my observations I would say that the task force will be very effective in Poland.”
-With files by Bill Graveland
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