There has been some big news since my last update.

I received an email response from the Minister of Defence and the Prime Minister, but my position is unchanged and I haven't responded yet. I will include the email and my response in an upcoming update.

What is really interesting is what Canada announced at the end of the 2 day NATO summit. It is going to send Ukraine 39 of its latest armoured combat support vehicles (ACSVs).

I sent a Tweet on this to parliament because I think this is very important for this petition. Feel free to like, reply or retweet: https://twitter.com/fintin/status/1542798035121410048?s=20

There was some confusion in the media about whether this was the older LAV2 armoured vehicles, but it seems these are actually brand new vehicles.

The reason why this is important is because it means a common criticism of this petition - that Ukraine doesn't use LAVs and hence if New Zealand sent a relatively small number of LAVs that these vehicles would be something they are unfamiliar with, is no longer the case.

The Ukrainian military will be standardising on Canadian, General Dynamics Land Systems based LAVs. This is exactly the same manufacturer of New Zealand's LAV3s. This could lead to standardisation and simplified training and logistics.

I have been wanting Canada to supply these LAVs for some time, and also for NZ and Canada to cooperate on supply of these to Ukraine.

The one thing I will say that I find puzzling, is that Canada appears to have deliberately chosen a variant of the vehicle that has no turret or large gun on it in the belief that this makes it a defensive vehicle rather than an offensive one. This is bizarre to say the least, especially since Canada has been supplying Ukraine with giant 155mm artillery, and some of the NATO alliance are already supplying Ukraine with tanks anyway.

Anyway, it is good news for Ukraine.

Cheers,

Finn