Ottawa has summoned Russia’s ambassador to Canada to answer for recent Russian missile strikes on the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, according to Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly, who called the attacks “sheer brutality.”
“We will continue to suffocate the Russian regime with coordinated sanctions and we will continue to counter Russian lies with facts.”
Joly added that her department’s officials summoned Russia’s ambassador to Canada, Oleg Stepanov, “to make clear we do not accept the sheer brutality of Russia’s recent attacks against civilians in Dnipro.”
Russia’s missile attacks on Dnipro on Jan. 14—which struck an apartment building, and reportedly killed at least 45 people, including some children—was the deadliest for Ukrainian civilians since Russia began its three-month-long missile campaign.
‘Face-to-Face’
Joly added during the press conference that Stepanov has also been summoned “to condemn face-to-face the anti-Semitic comments made by Russia’s Minister Sergey Lavrov.”“There’s no doubt that President Putin is a war criminal and, for Putin and his oligarchs, there will be nowhere to hide,” Joly said.
“Our first reaction is how dare he compare anything to the Holocaust,” Kirby said. “Let alone a war that they started.”
Canada’s summoning of Stepanov comes after the federal government had previously summoned the Russian ambassador five times in 2022.
Canada also announced on Jan. 18 that it would be supplying Ukraine with 200 Senator armoured personnel carriers as part of its ongoing military assistance to the country.
It comes shortly after Canada also donated an American-made surface-to-air missile defence system, which cost around $406 million.
“Canada alone has provided $5.2 billion worth of support [to Ukraine] and there will be more coming,” Joly said.
