‘Maybe the war could end sooner’: Hamilton’s Ukrainian community hopeful Canadian tanks will help end Russian war

Elena Lazar just wants it all to be over.

The war. The killing. The losses that cannot be replaced and the hurts that cannot be fixed.

But until it is, until Russia is out of Ukraine, Hamilton and Canada cannot back down.

You know, if all the world countries would have supported Ukraine way back when this war started 11 months ago, maybe it would not be in the state its in now," said Lazar, president of the Hamilton chapter of the Ukrainian Congress Canada (UCC). If all of Europe, but all of NATO countries, if they would hurry up and give (Ukraine) the proper tools they need, maybe the war could end sooner."

The desire to see the war end was why Lazar and UCC wanted to meet with Prime Minister Justice Trudeau and Defence Minister Anita Anand during this week's cabinet conference in Hamilton.

She said her requests went unanswered, but she was heartened by last week's announcement that Canada is sending Ukraine 200 armoured troop-carriers.

We are very pleased that Canada is supporting Ukraine. And they have been a very good friend of Ukraine as far as we are concerned," said Lazar in an Wednesday interview with The Spectator, the last day of the cabinet retreat.

Anand, who also spoke to The Spectator Wednesday, announced the deal to send the unarmed Mississauga-made vehicles, which can be outfitted with weapons, last week while visiting the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv.

She said the $90-million vehicles are expected to be in Ukrainian hands by the summer.

These are security-tasked vehicles," Anand said in an interview from the Hamilton Convention Centre. And I have heard repeatedly that Ukrainian troops appreciate the way in which they have strong manoeuvrability and adaptability. The vehicles are all state-of-the-art, best-in-class technology. The weapons can easily be mounted and gone down, and they allow for safe transport of personnel and equipment and medical evacuations. So this is a priority for the Ukrainian government that specifically requested these vehicles."

Canada's contributions to the Ukrainian war effort now exceeds a billion dollars, Anand said, which includes training thousands of Ukrainian soldiers and providing them with cameras for military drones made by L3 Harris Technologies in Hamilton.

I visited Kyiv last week not only to show our support, but also to reiterate our continuing long-term commitment to Ukraine's territorial integrity," Anand said.

What that long term looks like, however, is not clear. Anand - who is also facing the task of reforming the Canadian military after several sexual assault scandals - said she is impressed with the gains made by the Ukrainian military in halting Russian advances and taking back territory, but did not specify where she thought the conflict was headed.

Arne Kislenko, an international relations professor at the University of Toronto, said it is nearly impossible to predict how the war will evolve.

I think anybody who has an answer for you is lying, in part because there's so many wild cards," he said. A lot of us so-called experts got the whole thing wrong from the get-go about Russian intentions."

Kislenko said that, while Ukraine has had impressive battlefield victories, the situation could radically change in the spring. That is when thousands of NATO trained and equipped soldiers are expected to take to the battlefield against a new wave of comparatively less-well-armed Russian conscripts.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is the most unpredictable card, he said, because he is like an animal backed into a corner.

This is evidenced by the very poor state of the Russian military in Ukraine and by the fact that now, for a second time, he's going to call up conscripts, which is an act of desperation if you've ever seen one," Kislenko said.

Canada's contributions are important, he said, but it's also worth noting that the nation's contributions are not deal breakers" in Ukraine compared to those of other, larger nations. The Americans, for example, announced this week it is sending Ukraine shipments of its powerful Abrams tanks.

Canada's contributions are a symbolic gestures in a lot of ways and important ones," he said. We have a Ukrainian diaspora. We also have a very important obligation to NATO and the values that we're upholding here. But I don't think that the minister or anybody else can promise open-ended support."

For now, though, Lazar said Hamilton's Ukrainian community will continue to push for federal support for Ukraine.

You can't allow dictators to attack other countries unprovoked," she said. The whole world can't think that its only an attack on Ukraine and nobody else will do it to any other country. All of NATO and all the world needs to show by assisting Ukraine that this kind of behaviour is not acceptable anywhere in the world."

Grant LaFleche is an investigative reporter with The Spectator. Reach him via email: glafleche@torstar.ca