Canada banning crude oil imports from Russia, sending anti-t OTTAWA — Canada will be sending anti-tank weapons and “upgraded ammunition” to Ukraine and is banning all crude oil imports from Russia, said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Monday.
“Canada will continue to deliver support for Ukraine’s heroic defense against the Russian military,” Trudeau told reporters in Ottawa. “We are announcing our intention to ban all imports of crude oil from Russia, an industry that has benefited President Putin and his oligarchs greatly.”
Canada imported $289 million worth of energy products in 2021, according to Statistics Canada.
“The Russian government is now experiencing the severity of our coordinated sanctions. It is increasingly clear that President Putin has made a grave miscalculation. Today the ruble plunged to record lows and the Russian stock market was forced to close,” Trudeau said.
His government also asked the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission(CRTC), the country’s independent telecommunications and broadcast regulator, to review removing Russia’s state-sponsored network, Russia Today, from Canadian airways.
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“There is a significant amount of misinformation circulating from Russia,” Trudeau said.
During a press conference earlier Monday, Foreign Affairs Minister Joly told reporters that Defence Minister Anita Anand was preparing a third shipment of “lethal aid” that would be sent to Ukraine through neighbouring Poland.
“We will be able to make sure to send lethal aid to Ukraine. My role in this is to make sure that this aid gets in the arms of Ukrainian soldiers that are fighting for their life,” Joly said during a press conference Monday.
“That’s exactly why I have been able to get an agreement from Poland to make sure that that delivery could be done through their borders,” she added, noting she would travel to Poland Tuesday to “see with my own eyes” what is happening in Ukraine from the border.
Canada has already sent two different shipments of lethal aid to Ukraine in the past few weeks. The first was a nearly $8-million package of weapons and ammunition.
Then last week, Anand posted a picture of social media of a second delivery of “lethal military aid” to support Ukraine, although she made no mention of what the equipment was.