Economic, humanitarian, development assistance and peace and stabilization support – Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

Since January 2022, Canada has responded to Russia’s aggression by providing economic, humanitarian, development, and military assistance to Ukraine.

On this page:

• Economic assistance
• Humanitarian assistance
• Development assistance
• Peace and stabilization support

Economic assistance

To support Ukraine’s economic resilience, Canada has fully disbursed $1.95 billion in new loan resources to Ukraine. This amount includes a $500 million bilateral loan under the Bretton Woods and Related Agreements Act to the Ukrainian government and $1.45 billion through a new Administered Account for Ukraine at the International Monetary Fund to further help sustain Ukraine’s economic resiliency

To help support Ukraine’s long-term stability and economic recovery, and to demonstrate our commitment to the bilateral commercial relationship, Canada launched negotiations to modernize the Canada-Ukraine Free Trade Agreement (CUFTA) on January 27, 2022. Officials are undergoing regular discussions to reach an agreement by spring 2023.

On May 8, Canada announced the removal of all tariffs, without exception, on imports from Ukraine for a one-year period. This will provide Ukraine with the maximum level of tariff-free access to our market.

Canada and other official creditors to Ukraine agreed to provide a coordinated suspension of debt service due by Ukraine from August 2022, until end of 2023, with the possibility of an additional year extension.

Canada is providing a $50 million loan guarantee to enable a EUR 300 million European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) loan to Naftogaz, Ukraine’s state-owned gas company, to help keep the heat and lights on in Ukraine this winter.

Humanitarian assistance

Since January 2022, Canada has committed $320 million in humanitarian assistance to the United Nations, Red Cross, and non-governmental partners to respond to the humanitarian impacts of Russia’s invasion in Ukraine and neighboring countries.

With this contribution, our partners will provide emergency health services, protection, support to displaced populations and essential life-saving services such as shelter, water and sanitation and food.

Canada sent 20 cargo flights with more than 377,000 essential relief items, and financed the deployment of humanitarian experts to support the United Nations and Red Cross responses in Ukraine and neighbouring countries.  

Development assistance

Canada has committed an additional $96 million in development assistance funding to Ukraine to address emerging priorities, including:

• $35 million to continue supporting the resilience of Ukraine’s government institutions and civil society organizations so they are better able to meet the needs of Ukrainians, in particular women and vulnerable groups
• $7 million to the United Nations Population Fund to support victims of sexual and gender-based violence
• $2 million for the completion of a dairy processing plant in western Ukraine to support food security efforts
• $52 million to respond to Ukraine’s urgent need to increase grain storage capacity and enable the timely diagnostic testing and monitoring of animal diseases to allow for export certification, of which $50 million will be allocated for grain storage and associated technical assistance and $2 million will be earmarked for lab equipment

Peace and stabilization support

Canada is scaling up our security and stabilization programming in Ukraine, with $15 million in new and planned programming in Ukraine through PSOPs, including $3M to support Ukraine as it improves its strategic communication capacity and builds the resilience of Ukrainians in the face of disinformation.

Prime Minister Trudeau also announced an additional $24.7 million in security and stabilization programming which includes $15 million focused on demining to conduct risk education, hazard mapping, and clearance of explosive remnants of war and to strengthen the capacity of Ukrainian mine action institutions and $9.7 million to improve accountability for human rights violations in Ukraine, with a particular emphasis on cases of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV).

We also announced $13.4 million to support the G7 Rapid Response Mechanism (RRM) to identify and respond to foreign threats to democracy, including the Kremlin’s disinformation.

Related links

• Canada’s response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine
• Canada-Ukraine relations
• About consular services
• Large-scale emergencies outside Canada