Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal is planning to visit Canada in the coming weeks, a spokesperson for the Canadian Prime Minister told Reuters on Friday.
Shmyhal said in an interview with Canada's Globe and Mail that he intends to seek supplies of ammunition and armoured vehicles for a counteroffensive against invading Russian forces during the visit.
Shmyhal said in the interview that he was not concerned about the lack of new military aid allocated for Ukraine in Canada's federal budget, and hoped the country would provide more aid among other forms of assistance.
"Now, we need heavy armoured vehicles. And we need more artillery shells: ammunition for howitzers and ammunition for tanks," Shmyhal said. "It's crucially important for the organization of our counteroffensive."
Ukraine is expected to launch a counter-offensive to seize back land in the south and east of the country from Russian forces in the coming weeks or months.
The Ukrainian premier was quoted by the Globe as saying Ukraine would also like Canada to offer war risk insurance to Canadian companies investing in Ukraine to support reconstruction and foreign investment.
"So if a Canadian company will decide to invest money into Ukraine, we will ask the Canadian government to create some mechanism to support Canadian investments," he said.
Ukraine faces an unprecedented budget deficit this year due to ballooning military spending to fight off Russia's invasion and it relies heavily on foreign financial aid.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberal government has been one of Ukraine's most vocal international supporters and provided Kyiv with more than C$5 billion ($3.70 billion) in financial, military and other aid.
($1 = 1.3503 Canadian dollars)
(Reporting by Gokul Pisharody and Akanksha Khushi in Bengaluru, editing by Mark Heinrich, Kirsten Donovan)
