Canada will provide 200 Senator armored personnel carriers to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Anita Anand, Canadian Minister of National Defense, announced after a meeting with her Ukrainian counterpart Reznikov in Kyiv, Ukraine.
As noted at the Canadian government resource, the new provision comes after a specific request for these vehicles from Ukrainian officials. By December last year, 100 Senator APCs were delivered to the Defense Forces of Ukraine, some of them were handed over to the Border Guard Service of Ukraine who fight off the russian invasion alongside the regular army.
Read more: Canada Will Give 200 Senator Armored Personnel Carriers Amounting to $90 Million
"We’ve heard it clearly: Ukraine’s Armed Forces appreciate the maneuverability, durability, and agility of Canadian-made Roshel armored vehicles," Anita Anand wrote in a recent notice on her Twitter.
As a reminder, the Senator is a multi-purpose vehicle that is designed primarily for law enforcement and border guard patrol service. It was described by Ukrainian servicemen as a good maneuverable vehicle for a landing party of eight personnel and a driver.
It provides a European standard CEN B7 ballistic protection level for the engine and the passenger compartment that can stop a 7.62mm armor-piercing sniper bullet. Among the other vehicle's features: side gun ports, escape hatches, advanced locks, external view cameras, and others. Despite these capabilities, Senator is not a particularly frontline vehicle and is used for safe transportation or evacuation of personnel, delivery of supplies or prisoner swaps.
These tasks were up to Senators in service with a special unit of the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine named "Kraken," a soldier of this unit told Global News. Practice shows, it can protect the crew from a close hit by a BM-21 Grad rocket exploding nearby. The tires were damaged but both ballistic glass and armor withstood the blast.
Back in May, when the first eight vehicles of this type arrived in Ukraine, Ukrainian soldiers had not many options but to rely on non-armored commercial cars as their transport, the soldier said.
Now more countries have joined the effort on providing security mobility vehicles to the Ukrainian Defense Forces, including the U.S. commitment of "hundreds of HMMWVs", Australian Bushmaster, Turkish Kirpi, german Dingo and M113 from various countries.
Read more: Chernihiv Border Guards Received Canadian Senator APC Armored Vehicles
