Article content

CAMP DOIRON, Romania — Would Canadians have reckoned 16 months ago infantrymen from a base in the Ottawa Valley would be climbing a hill on the edge of the Transylvanian Alps to attack a Romanian position in war games aimed at deterring Russian aggression?

But there they were, a platoon from the Royal Canadian Regiment in Petawawa, Ont., dressed in war paint and combat camouflage exchanging fire with a Romanian heavy machine gun mounted on a Soviet-era armoured personnel carrier as U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopters patrolled nearby.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Canadians take part in NATO war games aimed at sending message to Russia over Ukraine aggression Back to video

The Canadian army has maintained a modest, but persistent presence in eastern Europe since soon after Russian forces invaded Crimea last March, then sent spies, soldiers, weapons and tanks to to help feeble separatists forces seize parts of eastern Ukraine.

The Royals have had slightly more than 200 soldiers in eastern Europe since last July, and have conducted joint exercises in Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. This month they decamped from Glebokie, Poland, to western Romania, a 1,721-kilometre trek that took three days. There, they established a tent camp named after Sgt. Andrew Doiron, who was killed in a friendly fire incident in Iraq in March.