Secretary of State for International Development Randeep Sarai, right, pictured next to Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand last October, says he gives Ukraine ‘a lot of credit’ for supporting veterans even before the war has ended.Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press
The federal Liberal government unveiled another $51-million in aid and reconstruction funding for Ukraine on Friday, including humanitarian aid such as food and shelter and supports for recent veterans who fought against Russia’s invasion.
The new measures come from a broader fund outlined in the 2025 budget, and $32-million of the money will go toward humanitarian aid through outside organizations, including the Red Cross, the United Nations Refugee Agency and the World Food Programme.
Another $5-million has been earmarked for programming to help veterans reintegrate into society.
Randeep Sarai, Secretary of State for International Development, said in a phone interview from the Kyiv Post newspaper office that Canada signed a memorandum of understanding with Ukraine a few years back on providing technical assistance to veterans.
The idea was to share with Ukraine’s government what Canada learned about helping veterans from the Afghanistan conflict with things such as health issues, including PTSD, and finding skilled jobs. He said this new funding will help enable that work.
“Most countries don’t really think about this until after the conflict is over,” Sarai said. “I give them a lot of credit that they were starting this two years ago, which was really two years into the conflict.”
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Another $6-million in funding is being set aside to help Ukraine prepare to eventually administer elections and educate voters about the process.
“How do you put up a polling station when there’s mines all around? And how do get people who are in displaced areas to be able participate?” Sarai said.
“How do you get people that are gone abroad, like those that are living in Canada and Poland and Germany and other parts of Europe, Australia, that are still citizens of Ukraine that want to come back and how will they participate?”
The funds also include $5 million for the organization UN Women, which will help Kyiv meet technical requirements to qualify to join the European Union. Those requirements include applying gender-based analysis to all of the legislation that gets passed through Ukraine’s parliament.
Sarai travelled to Poland and Ukraine this week and met with a range of Ukrainian cabinet ministers, including Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko.
This is Sarai’s first visit to the war-torn country. A trip planned years ago was cancelled due to the hostilities.
“You’re in a conflict where there’s missiles and drones and even fighter jets flying above you, and we heard air horns and had to go to a bunker one of the nights. Ukrainians go through this every day, and then they go back to work in the morning and they take their kids to school,” Sarai said, adding it was “very eye-opening” to see schools outfitted with shelters.
The federal government has come up with almost $26-billion for Ukraine since Russia launched its invasion in 2022, a conflict that has stretched on for nearly 1,500 days now.