Q1: What is Canada doing to support Ukraine?
HUMANITARIAN AID
- To date, the Government of Canada has committed a total of $245M in humanitarian aid to deliver life-saving assistance, such as water and sanitation, food, shelter and basic health services, to those most affected by the conflict in Ukraine.
- Of this, $170M has been allocated to United Nations organizations, the Red Cross Movement and to non-governmental organizations.
- Canada’s humanitarian assistance includes matching donations made to the Canadian Red Cross, the delivery of over 375,000 essential relief supplies, as well as the deployment of humanitarian and logistic experts to strengthen UN capabilities on the ground.
- Additionally, PM Trudeau co-hosted with President of the European Commission Von der Leyen, the “Stand Up with Ukraine” pledging event, which raised over $12.4B in pledges to support Ukrainian refugees and the ongoing humanitarian response.
DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE
- Through our bilateral development program, Canada allocated an additional $35M in development assistance funding to address emerging priorities, including supporting the resilience of Ukraine's government institutions and civil society organisations so they are better able to meet the needs of Ukrainians, in particular women and vulnerable groups. This includes:
- Providing critical assistance to local farmers and agricultural co-operatives, in light of rising food security concerns.
- Supporting civil society and women’s rights organizations, with rapid response sub-grants, civic-activist hubs and emergency support.
- Providing medical, surgical, oncological, and geriatrics equipment to various hospitals and municipal clinics.
- Providing psychosocial services and safe-spaces for women and girls impacted by SGBV; and supporting human-trafficking prevention initiatives.
- Supporting the GoU to collect inclusive data to assess immediate needs; and to develop their strategic communications capacity, including efforts to combat disinformation.
DEFENCE CAPABILITIES & ECONOMIC RESILIENCE
- We have also increased our support to Ukraine’s defence capabilities and economic resilience.
- Since February 2022, Canada has contributed over $131M to support Ukraine’s urgent and ongoing defence needs. This includes small arms and ammunition, anti-armour weapons, heavy artillery, armoured vehicles, high-resolution satellite imagery, drone cameras, personal protective gear and other specialized equipment.
- Since 2015, under Operation UNIFIER the Canadian Armed Forces have provided training for nearly 35,000 Ukrainian military and security personnel in tactical and advanced military skills.
- Budget 2022 proposes an additional $500M in military aid for Ukraine for the fiscal year 2022-23.
- We continue to evaluate every option to further support Ukraine’s defence needs.
- To support Ukraine’s economic resilience, in Budget 2022, we announced that we are offering up to $1B in new loan resources to the Government of Ukraine through a new Administered Account for Ukraine at the International Monetary Fund (IMF). This is in additional to $620M in bilateral loans already offered, of which $300M has now been disbursed.
- We are increasing security and stabilization programming in Ukraine to at least $15M this year through our Peace and Stabilization Operations Program (PSOPs).
- We are also continuing modernization negotiations of the Canada-Ukraine Free Trade Agreement (CUFTA) to support Ukraine’s long-term stability and economic development.
- Finally, to bolster our ongoing work and increased support we continue to enhance our diplomatic capacity in both Ottawa and in Ukraine. This includes additional subject matter experts in the areas of security sector and defence reform, sanctions and conflict management, among other areas.
Q2: Will Canada take further action hold the Russian Regime accountable?
- Canada is working with Ukraine and the international community to hold Russia accountable for its invasion of Ukraine and the alleged atrocities being committed.
- Since February 24, 2022, Canada has implemented several rounds of sanctions on over 1,000 individuals and entities (915 individuals and 118 entities) under the Special Economic Measures (Russia), (Belarus), and (Ukraine) Regulations.
- Together with several partners, Canada referred the situation in Ukraine to the International Criminal Court (ICC), as a result of numerous allegations of serious international crimes in Ukraine being committed by Russian forces, including war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity.
- Canada provided funding to Justice Rapid Response and UN Women for their rosters of international experts who can be deployed quickly [ Redacted ] .
- Canada, along with 44 other participating States, also invoked the OSCE Moscow Mechanism to establish a fact-finding mission to Ukraine to report on the human rights and humanitarian impacts of Russia’s invasion. The report was released on April 13 and concluded that Russian forces are committing atrocities and human rights violation in Ukraine, including war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity.
- Canada supported the establishment of the UN Human Rights Council Commission of Inquiry (COI) to investigate violations of human rights and international humanitarian law by Russia.
- Canada has provided additional funding to support the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) Human Rights Monitoring Mission’s work in Ukraine to increase its monitoring and reporting on human rights violations.
- Canada is also supporting Ukrainian human rights defenders and civil society through funding to the United Nations Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund, Frontline Defenders and the German Marshall Fund.
- The RCMP and the Department of Justice (DoJ) have initiated a structural investigation collecting evidence from Ukrainians who have fled the conflict and come to Canada.
- Canada is working closely with like-minded, particularly the EU and U.S. which are coordinating international assistance to the Ukrainian Office of the Prosecutor-General (e.g., equipment; capacity building; legal advice).
- Canada will not relent in holding Vladimir Putin and his enablers accountable for their egregious and illegal actions.
- Canada will not spare any effort to ensure that violations of international law in Ukraine are investigated, that evidence is gathered, and that perpetrators are held to account.
- Canada continues to work with our international allies and partners and is monitoring the situation closely.
Q3: What sanctions and economic measures has Canada imposed on Russia?
- Since February 24, 2022, Canada has imposed a wide range of new sanctions measures in response to Putin’s unprovoked and unjustifiable invasion of Ukraine, including dealings ban prohibitions on over 1,000 individuals and entities (915 individuals and 118 entities) under the Special Economic Measures Act (SEMA).
- The dealings ban prohibitions apply to individuals and entities listed under the SEMA (Russia) Regulations, SEMA (Ukraine) Regulations and SEMA (Belarus) Regulations.
- The prohibitions in the SEMA regulations are subject to certain exceptions, which can be found in the relevant regulations.
- Additional economic measures include:
- Canada has prohibited Russian-owned, chartered, used or leased vessels from entering Canadian internal waters and docking at our ports.
- Canada has also prohibited the provision of all insurance, reinsurance, and underwriting services for Russian and Belarusian aircraft, aviation and aerospace products.
- Russia’s economy depends heavily on the energy sector. Canada moved ahead with a prohibition on imports of 3 distinct types of petroleum products, including crude oil, from Russia.
- Canada has prohibited the export from Canada to Russia and Belarus of a broad list of goods and technologies in the areas of electronics, computers, telecommunications, sensors and lasers, navigation and avionics, marine products, aerospace and transportation.
- Canada, the European Union, the United Kingdom and the United States have disconnected key Russian banks from the SWIFT global interbank payment system. This joint effort has significantly restricted Russia’s ability to send money in and out of the country and effectively paused its major imports and exports, and will continue to so.
- Working with our allies, Canada is ensuring that those who undermine the international rules-based order do not benefit from it:
- Canada has revoked Russia’s and Belarus’ most-favoured nation status, resulting in a World Trade Organization statement calling on other members to follow suit.
- Export Development Canada, UK Export Finance and the Export-Import Bank of the United States have together withdrawn new export finance support for Russia and Belarus, while retaining support for Ukraine
Q4: What is the impact of Canada’s current measures against Russia?
- Canada’s sanctions measures are unprecedented both in impact and the level of coordination with international partners.
- These sanctions target the heart of Russia’s financial system, key institutions, major Russian bank, as well as oligarchs that have supported the Putin regime or benefitted from Russia’s violations of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
- Many Western companies have also responded by suspending or closing their operations in Russia.
- International sanctions have reduced the value of the ruble by 40%, boosted the weekly inflation rate by 2% and caused a dramatic fall in the Moscow stock exchange (closed since Feb 25).
- Longer term impacts are expected to be significant, with an estimated 6-7% fall in Russia’s GDP by the end of 2024.
- Inflation is expected to hit 20% in 2022 and real wages could decline by 18% by the end of 2022.
- Russia’s long-term growth prospects will remain significantly diminished by the existence of sanctions.
- Canada will not relent in holding Vladimir Putin and his enablers accountable for their egregious and illegal actions.
- Canada continues to work with our international allies and partners and is monitoring the situation closely.