Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau finished his six-day visit of Eastern Europe today by watching as Canadian and Ukrainian soldiers staged an exercise involving cannons and explosives.
The display near the city of Lviv in western Ukraine underlined the risks and challenges Canada faces in an increasingly volatile and politically important part of the world.
Member of Parliament for Dauphin, Swan River and Neepawa, Robert Sopuck says the situation in Western Ukraine hits home on a personal level. He said, "One of the reason I'm so passionate about this is I'm of Czech extraction, and I remember the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia... our family and other Czech families took in refugees in sixty - eight so for me this is personal."
The military campaign is scheduled to end March 2017 with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko making a personal request to Trudeau to extend the operation.
