Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced new sanctions against 74 people and businesses in Russia and Belarus as G7 leaders discussed the threat to global stability posed by the invasion of Ukraine.
The sanctions include 46 entities linked to the Russian defence sector, and 15 Ukrainians who support the Russian occupation of the country.
The Canadian government has also sanctioned 13 people linked to government and defence and two entities in Belarus.
Trudeau says Canada also plans to sanction those related to state-sponsored disinformation and propaganda agents, in an attempt to counter Kremlin disinformation.
Canada will also ban the export of advanced technologies that would improve Russia’s domestic defence manufacturing capabilities.
Canada has also banned the export of advanced technologies and goods that could be used in the manufacturing of weapons to Belarus, as well as the import and export of a broad range of luxury goods between Canada and Belarus.
Trudeau also announced that Canada, along with the United States, United Kingdom, and Japan, will ban the import of certain gold goods from Russia, shutting the commodity out of formal international markets.
The announcement came in a written statement on Monday after a two-hour meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and G7 leaders at their summit in Germany. Zelenskyy, appearing virtually, told the leaders the country will need help to rebuild its infrastructure.
The leaders met in a bright and beautiful meeting room in Schloss Elmau, Germany, a veritable mountaintop castle surrounded by blooming meadows and stunning vistas.
Zelenskyy appeared on a small monitor looking down on the group, stone-faced, in front of a grey background.
The conflict has been a running theme through Trudeau’s meetings with world leaders in Germany, as well as last week at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Rwanda.
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Zelenskyy thanked G7 leaders for their support, and laid out Ukraine’s requests for tougher sanctions against Russia, more defensive military support, and help to rebuild the bombed and destroyed communities and infrastructure once the conflict subsides, according to Canadian government officials who provided a briefing on the condition they not be named.
He made the point that governments should start thinking about that work now.
Russia announced its own set of new sanctions against Canada on Monday, targeting 43 Canadians including the prime minister’s former adviser Gerry Butts and Conservative strategist Jenni Byrne.
Trudeau spoke to Zelenskyy on the first day of the G7 summit to inquire what he needs from the leaders. According to Zelenskyy’s Twitter account, the two spoke about increasing defence support for the embattled country.
The heads of the world’s most developed economies dedicated their first session of the day to discussing the war and listening to Zelenskyy’s pleas for more aid.
Before the meeting, Trudeau and summit host Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke during a walk from the manor building, or schloss in German, down to one of the meadows, nestled between the building and the mountain view.
“We are cautious that we will help the Ukraine as much as is possible, but that we also avoid that there will be a big conflict between Russia and NATO,” Scholz told the media during a photo op with Trudeau.
The night before, in Ukraine’s capital city Kyiv, weeks of general calm were shattered by Russian missile strikes. The missiles hit a kindergarten and a residential building, killing one man and injuring a woman and child, the city’s mayor said.
While G7 leaders have been united in their condemnation of Russia, they are also expected to meet with Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, who has been invited to the summit but who also tightened economic and diplomatic ties with Russia in recent months.
Trudeau will meet with Modi one-on-one in a private meeting as well.
On Sunday, the United Kingdom announced new sanctions against Russia which would ban the import of Russian gold, the country’s biggest non-energy export.
The U.K. government says the same will apply to Canada, the United States and Japan, which, as a combined effort, would shut Russia out of formal markets. The idea is to “ratchet up pressure on Russia’s war machine,” squeezing the country out of funds to finance the conflict.
Russia was poised to default on its foreign debt on Sunday for the first time since the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, further alienating the country from the global financial system.
Russia calls any default artificial because it has the money to pay its debts but says sanctions have frozen its foreign currency reserves held abroad.
— with files from The Associated Press
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