Canada will send six CF-18 fighter jets to Poland to support NATO operations to flex the West’s military might amidst the ongoing tensions in Ukraine, Hannah Thibedeau reports (“Canada to send 6 CF-18s for NATO operation in Eastern Europe,” CBC News, 17 April 2014):

“This is in response to the situation that’s developing there, and frankly, more generally to the concern that we have on what really is expansionism and militarism on the part of Russia under the presidency of Mr. Putin,” [Prime Minister] Harper said during a photo op with Gen. Tom Lawson, the chief of Canada’s defence staff, and other military leaders in Ottawa.

The Prime Minister made the announcement in Ottawa Thursday morning while other world leaders met in Geneva to discuss the ongoing strife in Eastern Ukraine.

Harper also committed a contingent of roughly 20 Canadian Armed Forces planners to NATO headquarters in Brussels.

The officers will participate in “security planning”, while the military assets will be used to enhance NATO’s forces in Eastern Europe.

Photo credit: DND