KYIV, Sept. 25 - President Petro Poroshenko has asked Canada to restart a program to supply the Ukrainian military with satellite imagery to monitor Russian and separatist rebel troop movements, CBC News reported Monday.

Poroshenko said he urged Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to provide the country with sophisticated imagery of the Ukraine-Russia border from a Canadian satellite.

"Because that can effectively help us implement the Minsk agreement, to have evidence that Russia moved their tanks, artillery systems, multi-rocket launch systems," Poroshenko said.

It's not the first time Poroshenko has made a direct appeal to a Canadian prime minister for satellite data. He convinced the former Conservative government of Stephen Harper to provide RADARSAT-2 images for one year, beginning in March 2015, according to documents obtained by CBC News under Access to Information.

The $9.5-million initiative was not renewed in the spring of 2016 by the new Liberal government, which cited the cost and "limitations of the license requirements" as reasons for ending the program, said the documents.

The images were carefully limited to cover the "internationally recognized territory of Ukraine" only and "any area or point outside this geographic zone" was not allowed to be shared.

That is significant because it blinded the Ukrainians to potential Russian troop movements on the other side of the border.

In the fall of last year, Canadian officials made it clear to their Ukrainian counterparts the decision to suspend the sharing of information would not be reviewed.

"I have no doubt that we will solve this question," Poroshenko said, following his meeting with Trudeau last Friday.

Canadian peacekeepers 'extremely important'

The Ukrainian president said Canada should be involved in the mission to help end a conflict in the embattled eastern European country between government troops and Russia-backed separatists.

Poroshenko called it "extremely important, because Canada has a unique experience," noting Canada's historic role in developing the UN's peacekeeping function. (cbc/ez)