What Canada pledged to Ukraine after the Kakhovka dam collapse
A look back at the military and humanitarian aid announced by Canada's prime minister days after the dam breach in Kherson Oblast.
What did Canada offer Ukraine in the days after the Kakhovka Dam failed? On 11 June 2023, the answer was still fresh: a day earlier, on 10 June 2023, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had announced a $500 million military aid package, along with a separate $10 million humanitarian package.
The military package included 288 AIM-7 missiles. The humanitarian money was intended to help victims of the dam collapse.
The disaster behind the aid
The Kakhovka Dam was breached in the early hours of 6 June 2023, causing extensive flooding along the lower Dnieper, also called the Dnipro, in Kherson Oblast. The dam was under the control of the Russian military, which had seized it in the early days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Many experts concluded that Russian forces likely blew up a segment of the dam to hinder the planned Ukrainian counter-offensive. Ukraine specifically blamed Russia's 205th Separate Guards Motor Rifle Brigade. Russian authorities denied the accusations.
The Canadian announcement therefore combined two tracks: continued military support and relief for people affected by the flooding.
