Ottawa, March 16 Canadian Defence Minister Anita Anand has announced additional military assistance to Ukraine.

Canada will donate nearly 8,000 rounds of 155mm ammunition, as well as 12 air defence missiles sourced from Canadian Armed Forces' (CAF) inventory, to sustain the air defence systems currently deployed in Ukraine, Anand said in a statement issued by the Defence Ministry on Wednesday.

Canada will also donate more than 1,800 rounds of 105mm tank training ammunition, to support the donation of Leopard 1 tanks announced by Denmark, Germany, and the Netherlands, she added.

She also confirmed that the CAF started the shipments of the additional Leopard 2 main battle tanks pledged by Canada at the end of February, Xinhua news agency reported.

Canada has committed eight Leopard 2 main battle tanks to Ukraine in total. All eight tanks, and the previously announced armoured recovery vehicle, ancillary equipment, and ammunition donated by Canada, are expected to be in Ukraine in the coming weeks, the statement said.

Since February 2022, Canada has committed other military assistance donations to Ukraine, including more than 200 Senator commercial pattern armoured vehicles, a National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System with associated munitions, 39 armoured combat support vehicles, and anti-tank weapons.

CAF personnel are currently deployed to both the UK and Poland to assist with training members of the Ukrainian Armed Forces under Operation UNIFIER, Canada's military training and capacity building mission in support of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Since the start of Operation UNIFIER in 2015, the CAF has trained more than 35,000 members of the Security Forces of Ukraine, according to the Canadian Defence Ministry.