Subordination of Military Training and Intelligence to NATO's Aims

A study of the Ukrainian armed forces points out that despite the breakup of the Soviet Union, "the Ukrainian Armed Forces inherited a considerable part of the weaponry and military equipment deployed in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, as well as military colleges located on its territory. As a result, Ukraine was still able to train officers of all levels despite the deplorable state of its army and failure to develop its military capability over the last 20 years. Notwithstanding repeated changes in the country's leadership and political instability, the army's infrastructure and training methods were still largely rooted in the Soviet past." It further states: "This feature of the Ukrainian military shaped the mindset of the average officer trained in the post-Soviet period. Unlike Georgia, which has fully outsourced military training to the United States, Ukraine preserved traditions of military and theoretical training of career officers that had been developed over the preceding decades. "It goes without saying that those pushing Ukraine towards a Euro-Atlantic future were uncomfortable with this state of affairs. It is for this reason that the core documents of Ukraine-NATO cooperation attach special importance to military education and training reform." Canada has been in the forefront in imposing NATO standards on the Ukrainian armed forces with regard to training, weapons and equipment, tactics and operations, and military doctrines. The Ukrainian armed forces has exhibited resistance to the conversion from the Soviet military doctrine to that of NATO. The Canadian forces placed a special focus on the training of officers in the English language in a sort of imperialist division of labour by the Anglosphere; Britain trains the Georgian armed forces. Every year scores of Ukrainian officers and soldiers benefit from internships and training sessions held in Ukraine and Canada with the aim of converting that army over the years from a Russian- and Ukrainian-speaking force to an English- and Ukrainian-speaking force. Although it is not a member of NATO, Ukraine is the third-largest recipient of the 68 countries' armed forces that are involved in Canada's Military Training Assistance Program (MTAP). Further, the best students are sent to military education institutions in NATO member states for advanced studies, to serve as interns in armed forces of allied nations, and to take part in NATO exercises. Annually, around 50 attendees from Ukraine go through MTAP. Since 1993 more than 1,000 military men and civil personnel of the Ministry of Defence and the Armed Forces of Ukraine have completed the program. According to MTAP, its "language training improves communication between NATO and other armed forces" and its "professional development and staff training enhances other countries' compatibility with the CFs[Canadian Forces]." At a broader level, MTAP states that its training "serves to achieve influence in areas of strategic interest to Canada. Canadian diplomatic and military representatives find it considerably easier to gain access and exert influence in countries with a core group of Canadian-trained professional military leaders." Canada also oversees training for international "peace operations." The fact that Ukrainian soldiers and officers have been involved in overseas combat operations is also little known to Canadians. Ukrainian troops were in Iraq from the very start of this war of aggression and have been deployed to Afghanistan and Kosovo. This is the logical result of the agreements Ukraine signed with NATO, its commitment to interoperability and the numerous exercises held at the Yavoriv PfP Training Center and abroad. Meanwhile, Ukraine used peacekeeping operations and training as cover for enhancing the army's interoperability with NATO. The operations, for which the Ukrainian army was purportedly preparing, had nothing in common with keeping peace. In fact, NATO used peacekeeping as a pretext to create its infrastructure and gain a foothold on Ukrainian territory. As part of attempts by the U.S. and NATO to encircle and isolate Russia adopted by the Wales Summit in September 2014, Canada began providing training to the armed forces aligned with the coup regime in Kiev as early as December 2014. A December 8, 2014 item in the Globe and Mail reported that Canada was the first member of NATO to publicly send soldiers to "help train" Ukraine's military. Then Minister of Defence Rob Nicholson was in Kiev at the time to announce that Canadian soldiers had begun arriving to train Ukraine's military police. The next year, this was made an official mission with the announcement by the U.S. Department of Defense that "Canada will be joining the DoD-State Department initiative to help train members of the Ukrainian National Guard." The National Guard is a component of Ukraine's armed forces made up of mostly privately-funded and assembled, largely fascist or neo-Nazi militia and paramilitary groups established during and after the 2014 coup. At the same time, Canada began providing military intelligence. The Globe and Mail reported on February 12, 2014 that the Harper government was negotiating with the coup regime to provide the Ukrainian military high-resolution images from Canada's RADARSAT-2 satellite twice per day. "RADARSAT-2, a satellite launched in 2007, is operated by Richmond, BC's MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates for the Canadian government and is used for everything from coastal surveillance by the military to mapping and keeping track of sea ice, crops, pollution and ships," the Globe informed. It added, "The Canadian government will stipulate in the agreement that the satellite pictures should only be used to help Ukraine take defensive measures and not offensive operations such as targeting opposing forces." "Defensive measures" presuppose an aggression against Ukraine or an invasion, neither of which was the case. If the surveillance was not needed for defence, then what is its purpose? On March 21, 2014 the deployment of an official Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) observation mission to Ukraine was decided to last for an initial period of six months on the formal request of the coup government, with ten Germans participating in the mission. Within five weeks, three German military observers were captured on April 27 along with three other officers from NATO countries in the embattled eastern Ukrainian city of Slavyansk. The Germans being held in Slavyansk, however, were not on a mission for the OSCE. They were on a mission as military observers on behalf of the German Bundeswehr. They could not produce an international mandate. The Bundeswehr called their activities in the Ukraine "unusual." The fact that they traveled into the embattled city of Slavyansk raised even more questions. A few days later, the Ukrainian armed forces stormed Slavyansk. With the exposure of the secret role of the Germans, Harper stepped to the plate and announced on April 30, 2014 that Canada would now lead the OSCE Verification Mission.[1] In July 2016 Trudeau said additional Canadian monitors would be added to the OSCE mission in eastern Ukraine. This mission has frequently been used to pin the blame on Russia for clashes and to uphold the interests of the NATO powers. Canada also takes part in the financing, construction and repair of Ukrainian military infrastructure, including to facilitate its training role and military exercises. One example is the International Peacekeeping and Security Center (IPSC) in the village of Starichi near Lvov in northwestern Ukraine. It has become one of the key elements of this infrastructure and is the main base for both the "Rapid Trident" and "Maple Arch" exercises, the largest annual Ukraine-U.S. military exercises. Canadian and U.S. training of the hastily-formed National Guard and the infantry military exercises they sponsor in Ukraine are also held at the IPSC in Starichi. IPSC is being upgraded not only for purposes of meeting NATO standards, which have become the guiding light of the Ukrainian defence department, but for actual use by NATO. The IPSC also offers training in English-language military terminology, and is involved in drafting documents on the incorporation of NATO standards in Ukrainian armed forces combat training programs. It is for these reasons that IPSC hosts not only Maple Arch but also Rapid Trident. The IPSC can accommodate up to 1,790 Ukrainian and NATO servicemen in three barracks -- Tsentralnaya, Gvardeyskaya and Inzhenernaya -- and is called NATO's closest neighbour, since it is only 10-15 kilometres away from the border with Poland. It has a ramified road network and three airfields -- Sknyliv, Stryy and Cherlyany which can receive foreign participants. The Yavoriv operations site is the largest military firing range in Europe, covering 40,000 square kilometres. The IPSC has a 28x15 kilometre training area, which can be used to hold large-scale exercises involving air forces, artillery, paratroopers, ground troops and armour. According to the Ukrainian Defence Ministry, the IPSC includes training facilities for gunners, divers, paratroopers, tank crews and engineers, as well as everything required for small arms practice and tactical, specialized troops and even psychological training. In addition to the IPSC, Canadian military units have at their disposal smaller centres in which training is being conducted. Note 1. The OSCE subsequently took up the investigation of the murky details surrounding the crash of a Malaysian Airlines (MH 17) Boeing aircraft in Eastern Ukraine, around which an unprecedented disinformation campaign was launched. Since 2014 the OSCE spokesman has been Michael Bociurkiw, a Canadian journalist and pro-coup activist. Already in 2012 the Harper government had sent him as an observer of the Ukrainian election. According to a report on Pravda.ru , Bociurkiw was the son of Bohdan R. Bociurkiw, a native of Galicia who was "a follower of the Bandera terrorist forces and arrested by Polish secret services back in the times." Nevertheless, Bociurkiw was first on the scene of the crash. His initial report that the numerous small holes in the arcraft's cockpit were caused not by a missile but by machinegun rounds has never been answered. Important questions about the circumstances in which the forensics were undertaken remain unanswered as well. For example, why did Ukrainian troops force the experts to halt their on-site investigation of the crash, after only a few days, by launching attacks on rebel positions in the immediate vicinity? (TML Weekly Supplement No. 23, June 24, 2017)