The Canadian Forces are signing onto a training mission in Ukraine.

iPolitics has learned Canadian trainers will join American troops currently serving in that role. Observers are set to deploy to the eastern European country in mid-May to shadow the Americans, with the remainder of the contingent to follow near the end of the month. The mission is expected to be a two-year commitment.

The force will be unarmed and tasked with training Ukrainian infantry battalions. For instance, engineers will provide mine and IED awareness training and medics be reviewing casualty care. Specialists will provide training to counter improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and in logistics modernization, while military police attached to the mission will be focused primarily on detainee and prisoner-of-war handling.

Sources say Canadian soldiers will be working in the western part of Ukraine, nearly 1,300 kilometres from the conflict in the east. They’ll be based out of a NATO Partnership for Peace Training and Education centre in Yavoriv, just a short distance from the Polish border.

More details on the mission are expected to be released tomorrow or early next week.

Defence Minister Jason Kenney first mentioned in February that the government was considering joining the U.S. and Britain in a military training mission to shore up embattled Ukrainian troops.

At the time, it didn’t exactly draw a rousing response from the opposition.

The U.S. military has committed 800 troops to train three battalions in western Ukraine, and the British military announced in March that it had sent 35 trainers there on a two-month deployment.