At the edge of a training field in southern Ukraine, a dull metallic shape juts out of the soil. It is a 45-millimetre Soviet shell, fired in the Second World War and buried for decades.
A group of kevlar-clad men form a semi-circle around the explosive, fasten their ballistic helmets and prepare a remote charge switch. Seconds later, a controlled explosion rips through the air, scattering the remains of a weapon older than any of the Ukrainian men now plugging their ears.
This field is in Ukraine’s Khmelnytskyi Oblast, a province that once hosted Operation Unifier, Canada’s training mission to assist the Ukrainian military.
Operation Unifier no longer operates in Ukraine, but its legacy lives on. It is present in the buildings — in the facility classrooms Canada paid to renovate, and the plaques on the walls showing Canadian and Ukrainian soldiers standing side by side. And it is present in the techniques that continue to shape the war.
“We pass that training on,” said Senior Sgt. Anatoly Mahnitskyi, a veteran Ukrainian instructor who trained with Canadian teams at Khmelnytsky in 2015.
Back then, the threat from Russia had not evolved into the full-scale war that exists today.
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, at least 60,000 Ukrainian soldiers and 14,000 Ukrainian civilians are estimated to have died. Tens of thousands more have been injured.
Russia now controls a fifth of Ukraine’s territory, while an end to the war looks as uncertain as ever.
Lessons for survival
As the conflict has evolved, so too has Operation Unifier.
Operation Unifier began as a bilateral training mission between Canada and Ukraine following Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014.
Canada initially deployed about 200 Canadian Armed Forces members to training sites in Ukraine itself. There, the CAF trained existing members of Ukraine’s military on tactical skills such as combined arms, military engineering, military policing, medical support and logistics.
Following Russia’s 2022 invasion, Unifier relocated to other locations in Europe. Today, Canadians now train Ukrainian soldiers — both new and old — on specialized military roles informed by the realities of active war.
Speaking to Canadian Affairs at the training facility in Khmelnytskyi, Mahnitskyi sketched out the arc of his own professional formation.
“Starting in 2015, I got the basic sapper course,” he said, referring to training in combat engineering that teaches how to handle explosives.
In subsequent years, Mahnitskyi received advanced training through Unifier on clearing mines and operating robotic systems. In early 2022, when many analysts predicted the whole country could fall to Russia within weeks, Mahnitskyi used these skills to help defend the region around Ukraine’s capital.
“The enemy had mined a bridge … rigged with pressure plates and traps,” Mahnitskyi said, describing a booby-trapped bridge near Kyiv. “The design [of the Russian booby trap] meant that if a vehicle crossed, the whole bridge could go up. We identified and neutralized it.
“The skills we learned from the Canadians helped us clear it safely.”
Lt. Bohdan Gyshchuk, who trained under Canadian instructors in 2018 and now teaches at the training centre in Khmelnytskyi, had similar stories of how Unifier’s methods have saved lives.
“We learned a lot of different techniques that we can use to keep us safe,” said Gyshchuk. “The hook and line technique we use a lot in combat missions,” he said, referring to a method of explosive ordnance disposal that uses cables and pulley systems to move or detonate potential booby traps from a distance.
The task of clearing explosives is a monumental one for the country.
The United Nations estimates that about a quarter of Ukraine may be contaminated with explosive remnants, making it one of the world’s most dangerous places for unexploded weapons.
“Nowadays, Ukraine is … the most… contaminated … territory in the world,” Gyshchuk said.
“For sappers, there is gonna be work for decades.”
Whenever he is deployed to contested territory, Gyshchuk and his men clear paths for assaults through minefields, search booby-trapped buildings and remove unexploded ordnance — work that straddles combat engineering and humanitarian clearance.
“It’s a real tragedy, because civilian people are really in a great danger,” said Gyshchuk.
The evolving nature of Russia’s weapons has posed an additional challenge. Unifier’s instructors are continually adapting their training to respond to changing technological threats.
“With today’s heavy use of improvised explosives — take FPV [first-person view] drones, for example — they’re also IEDs [improvised explosive devices],” said Mahnitskyi.
Lt.-Col. Mykola Makovskyi, who oversees explosives training at the Khmelnytskyi facility, credits Unifier with saving many lives.
“It has saved not one life, but many,” he said.
Ukrainian combat engineering trainees observe an explosion at a training facility in Khmelnytskyi Oblast, Ukraine, August 11, 2025 | Sam Forster Ukrainian combat engineering trainees set charges at a training facility in Khmelnytskyi Oblast, Ukraine, August 11, 2025 | Sam Forster Lt. Bohdan Gyshchuk, who trained under Canadian instructors in 2018, teaches at a training facility in Khmelnytskyi Oblast, Ukraine, August 11, 2025 | Sam Forster An explosive charge set up by Ukrainian combat engineer trainees at a facility in Khmelnytskyi Oblast, Ukraine, August 11, 2025 | Sam Forster An explosive charge set up on a destroyed Russian tank at a training facility in Khmelnytskyi Oblast, Ukraine, August 11, 2025 | Sam Forster A hanging, “no-contact” charge — which allows explosive boobytraps to be detonated without risking an accidental trigger — set up by Ukrainian combat engineer trainees at a facility in Khmelnytskyi Oblast, Ukraine, August 11, 2025 | Sam Forster Lt. Bohdan Gyshchuk, who trained under Canadian instructors in 2018, teaches at a training facility in Khmelnytskyi Oblast, Ukraine, August 11, 2025 | Sam Forster 
A plaque commemorating Operation Unifier at a training facility in Khmelnytskyi Oblast, Ukraine, August 11, 2025 | Sam Forster
Unifier tomorrow
Unlike some of Canada’s other active operations, Operation Unifier is not mentioned in the 2025 budget released last week. Unifier’s current training mandate is slated to end in March 2026.
But Elizabeth Anderson, a fellow at the Montreal Institute for Global Security think tank, sees little chance of that happening.
“The security of Ukraine is very fundamental,” said Anderson, who was previously a senior adviser to former foreign affairs minister Mélanie Joly.
“I would say [Ukraine is] our number one foreign policy objective … the amount of political cohesion across party lines on the issue is absolutely there for ongoing support and is an anomaly on basically any other government file that I can think of.”
Since 2022, Canada has committed roughly $22 billion in aid to Ukraine in the form of financial, military and humanitarian aid.
“I don’t see that support decreasing,” said Anderson. “I only see it increasing … there might be a willingness to increase our military support simply because it then also helps us meet our NATO targets.”
The 2025 budget includes historic defence spending commitments, including a pledge to spend $82 billion on defence over the next five years.
Gyschuk says ongoing collaboration between Ukraine and Canada could be a decisive factor in Ukraine’s survival as an independent nation.
“We’re doing all that we can, but we still need support,” he said. “If we stay together, we can make it.”
