Questions surround Canada’s donation of air defence system for Ukraine one year on

OTTAWA — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says improving air defence is a top priority for his country in the new year, but getting air defence systems onto the battlefield has been slow.

The surface-to-air missile system Canada pledged to buy for Ukraine a year ago has not arrived and it’s not clear whether the federal government knows when it will be sent to Ukraine. 

The Defence Department says Canada paid the U.S. government $406 million for the system last March. 

A spokesperson for DND says the U.S. government has signed a contract with arms maker Raytheon to get it built.