Mr. Chair, distinguished members of the Standing Committee on National Defence, thank you for giving me this opportunity to speak to you.
With your kind permission, I'll continue in English.
I would like to start my briefing today by expressing once again our profound gratitude to Canada for its continuous leadership in international efforts to support Ukraine in our existential war for survival against the brutal Russian aggressor.
I wish to use this opportunity of addressing the distinguished members of the House of Commons to extend sincere gratitude to the Canadian government for the recent announcement by the Honourable Anita Anand, Minister of Foreign Affairs, at the meeting of NATO ministers of foreign affairs in Brussels, of $35 million in funding for NATO's comprehensive assistance package for Ukraine. We are confident that Canada's support will bolster the NATO multi-donor trust fund to help address Ukraine's immediate, medium and long-term security and defence needs in urgent, non-lethal military assistance, in medium and long-term capacity building and in planning and recovery initiatives.
We are also very grateful for the recent announcement by the Honourable David McGuinty, Minister of National Defence, of Canada's new purchase of a package of critical military capabilities under the so-called PURL initiative, which will amount to $200 million Canadian. These announcements, like all other previous decisions by Canada, are vital for the defence of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as for saving the lives of Ukrainians.
Distinguished members of the standing committee, let me proceed with a brief overview of the recent developments in Ukraine and the situation on the battlefield.
The situation on the front line continues to be tense, yet Ukraine continues to hold firm. Active hostilities are ongoing along a front line stretching about 1,250 kilometres. The most intense fighting is currently concentrated near Pokrovsk, in the Donetsk region, where Moscow has deployed approximately 150,000 troops from a total of 710,000 Russian troops operating on Ukrainian territory.
The search and assault operations and the elimination of the enemy in urban areas continue in Pokrovsk. In Myrnohrad, despite increasingly complicated logistics, the defence forces of Ukraine continue to hold the defensive lines, eliminating the enemy on their approaches to the city. The defence forces of Ukraine have stabilized the situation in the Huliaipole sector, in the Zaporizhzhia region, halting the enemy's advance.
Despite the intensive Russian offensives, Moscow has failed to achieve any of its strategic objectives, while Ukrainian forces retain the capacity to disrupt and degrade enemy operations along the front line. Russia's losses in personnel and equipment remain extremely high, highlighting the unsustainable nature of its military campaign.
As of December 8, since February 24, 2022, Russia has lost more than 1,182,000 soldiers. Our strategy is to exhaust the Russian army as much as possible, prevent its advance and hold our territory, while simultaneously striking the enemy in the near rear, in operational depth and deep inside Russia, with the aim of undermining its defence capabilities, military supply chains and defence industrial potential. To achieve this goal, we need a stable and timely supply of all types of weapons and ammunition in large quantities to hold the front line.
Ukraine is profoundly grateful for every package of support, but we need more. Russia is ramping up its drones and bombs production and is intensifying its offence on the front line by shelling and bombing civil infrastructure. In the first 11 months of 2025, Russians dropped nearly 44,000 guided aerial bombs on the frontline cities and positions of the Ukrainian armed forces, an average of 130 bombs per day. Throughout the week of December 1 to 7, the Russians launched over 1,600 attack drones, around 1,200 guided aerial bombs and nearly 70 missiles of various types against Ukraine. The primary targets of these strikes were critical civil infrastructure, in particular energy infrastructure.
The UN human rights monitoring mission in Ukraine has assessed that these attacks have been of a widespread and systematic nature. It was also concluded that multiple aspects of the Russian military campaign to damage or destroy Ukraine's civilian electricity and heat-producing and transmission infrastructure violated fundamental principles of international humanitarian law. Since the start of Russia's full-scale military invasion, more than 50% of Ukraine's energy capacity has been destroyed, damaged or temporarily occupied.
According to the latest World Bank report, restoring Ukraine's energy sector would cost about $68 billion U.S. We estimate that the energy sector losses at the end of 2024 amounted to $93 billion U.S.
Our long-standing top priority is air defence and missile deterrence against ballistic threats. It's so vital for Ukraine to receive 10 additional PATRIOT systems, plus missiles for the PATRIOT, NASAMS, IRIS-T and Hawk systems. We also need deep strike capabilities: Tomahawks, Storm Shadows, SCALPs, Tauruses and the joint production of deep strike drones and missiles.
Ukraine is ramping up production both domestically and in co-operation with our partners. We invite foreign companies to establish production facilities directly in Ukraine. We want to multiply the positive results of the so-called Danish model and the “Build with Ukraine/Build in Ukraine” initiative. We are also considering controlled arms exports for overproduced weapons, such as naval drones.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
