Canada may soon hand over tens of thousands of CRV7 air-to-air rockets to Ukraine – defense minister
Bill Blair (Photo: EPA/TOMS KALNINS)

In the coming days Canada will make a decision on sending decommissioned CRV7 unguided 70 mm air-to-air rockets to Ukraine, Canada's Minister of Defense Bill Blair said at a briefing.

Earlier, the head of Ukraine's Defense Intelligence Kyrylo Budanov called on Ottawa to hand them over to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

"We are doing the work right now to make sure that those munitions can be safely transported and once that has been determined – and that should be only a matter of days – we will move as quickly as possible to get all of that resource to Ukraine as quickly as possible," Blair said.

Budanov previously noted that the transfer of the CRV7 would help Ukraine repel Russian forces and save Canadian taxpayers the cost of destroying these missiles.

Ukraine could use rockets both in attack helicopters and in ground launchers to engage Russian tanks and artillery.

REFERENCE
The CRV7 (Canadian Rocket Vehicle 7) is a 70 mm caliber Canadian airborne unguided rocket with folding wings designed to strike ground targets. The Canadian Ministry of Defense has 83,303 of these rockets, although some of them are no longer equipped with warheads. These projectiles were decommissioned in the early 2000s. In the context of the transfer to Ukraine, more than 83,000 CRV7 missiles stored in the Canadian Armed Forces' ammunition depot could be handed over.

On February 3, it was reported that the leader of the opposition Conservative Party of Canada, Pierre Poilievre, called on the government to hand over CRV7 missiles to Ukraine, which were meant to be disposed of.

The Ministry of Defense of Canada stated that the government is indeed considering such a possibility, but it is necessary to make sure that the donation will meet the military needs of Ukraine.

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