Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed his gratitude to Canada for providing $500 million in financial aid in a tweet on Tuesday.
Calling it a “timely decision,” President Zelensky sent his thanks to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Earlier on Monday, Trudeau confirmed in a press release that “Canada will donate more than $7 million worth of lethal weapons and a variety of support items to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.”
Russia’s ambassador to Canada, Oleg Stepanov, called the delivery of arms aid to Ukraine “unacceptable” in an interview with the Russian state news agency TASS.
Stepanov said the move “will only aggravate the current conflict” and that “by providing weapons, Western countries are putting pressure on the Kiev regime to continue the war against its own people,” according to TASS.
Ambassador Stepanov urged Ottawa to “refrain from such actions and instead use its special influence with the Kiev authorities to bring them to the negotiating table.”
Among the lethal weapons donated by Canada are “machine guns, pistols, carbines, 1.5 million rounds of ammunition, sniper rifles and related equipment,” the Canadian government press release said on Monday.
This brings Canada’s total donations of military equipment to Ukraine to more than $23 million since 2015, according to the press release.
Trudeau said in a tweet that the additional financial aid, as well as military equipment and ammunition, are intended to “help Ukraine defend itself and deter Russia from further aggression.”