Canada will provide Ukraine with C$350 million (€218m) to help secure air defence interceptors, Prime Minister Mark Carney said after meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The agreement comes as Kyiv faces a critical shortage of US-made Patriot interceptors, which are capable of countering Russia’s ballistic missiles. Moscow has intensified its aerial assault in recent weeks.
- Advertisement -
“As Russia escalates its barbaric aerial warfare indiscriminately targeting civilian populations, Ukraine’s air defences are critical,” Mr Carney told reporters in Calgary.
“Earlier today Canada and Ukraine finalised an agreement to deliver critical air defence interceptors … this C$350 million equipment package will help protect Ukraine’s people, infrastructure, and skies.”
The interceptors will be supplied through a US programme that enables third-party countries to purchase and rapidly transfer weapons, including Patriot missiles, to Ukraine.
Mark Carney told Volodymyr Zelensky that ‘Ukraine’s air defences are critical’
Canada has emerged as one of Kyiv’s strongest international supporters, providing more than C$25.5 billion (€16bn) in aid since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022. That total includes C$8.5bn (€5bn) in military assistance.
Mr Carney also said Canada planned to expand drone manufacturing, with the goal of producing millions of units within the next two years. He said one-third of that output would be sent to Ukraine.
An estimated 1.3 to 1.4 million people of Ukrainian descent live in Canada, giving the country one of the world’s largest Ukrainian diasporas.
Earlier, Mr Carney pledged his government’s support for Ukraine’s ambitions to join both NATO and the European Union.
Russia strikes targets in Kyiv, Dnipro
Russian forces struck a petrol station in Kyiv and an international agribusiness facility operated by Bunge in the southeastern city of Dnipro, Ukrainian authorities said, as Moscow broadened attacks on logistics and economic infrastructure.
In recent weeks, Russia has increased its use of ballistic missiles and jet-powered drones against warehouses, food suppliers and retail chains.
Ukraine has struggled to intercept the incoming attacks amid an acute shortage of air defence systems.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Sergii Koretskyi said attacks on businesses and civilian infrastructure were “rapidly growing”, calling on the government to “react and act in advance”.
Russia denies intentionally striking civilian sites.
The attack on the Ukrnafta petrol station appeared to be the first jet-powered drone strike on such a facility in Kyiv.
It came after about 300 attacks on petrol stations in or near Ukraine’s frontline regions in recent months.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said four people were injured.
“There is no military objective in such strikes. This is terror and intimidation of the civilian population,” Ukrnafta Chief Executive Bohdan Kukura wrote on Facebook.
The aftermath of a Russian airstrike on a residential area of Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine
In Dnipro, the strike on the Bunge sunflower oil facility killed two people. The plant is among Ukraine’s largest food-processing sites and can handle 1,600 tons of oilseeds a day.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said it was the second attack on a US-owned business in several weeks.
“This is no coincidence, but part of Moscow’s systematic terror campaign against American businesses and economic interests,” he wrote on X.
A local official said five people were wounded.
Four people were killed and about 60 injured in a separate Russian strike on Pavlohrad, an important transit hub in eastern Ukraine that serves frontline areas, regional officials said.
In the northeastern city of Sumy, officials reported that a jet-powered drone hit a shopping centre, one day after a similar attack killed two people and wounded 20.
Latest Ukraine stories
Moscow and Kyiv have exchanged increasingly heavy strikes on logistics and other economic targets in recent weeks, with both sides seeking to disrupt the other’s war effort.
Ukraine has targeted Russia’s largest online retailers and oil refineries, including sites deep inside the country, as well as energy and fuel networks in areas of its own territory occupied by Russian forces.
Russia has intensified attacks on Ukrainian ports. Overnight strikes in the southern city of Mykolaiv killed four people and injured 19, regional officials said.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian drone attacks in Russia’s Belgorod region killed one person and injured six, according to regional authorities.
Officials said the drones targeted an unnamed facility in the town of Novy Oskol.
