(Ottawa) The Trudeau government is targeting an objective ally of Russia in its aggression against Ukraine: Belarus.
Posted at 3:49 p.m.
Transport Minister Omar Alghabra announced that Canada is now banning Belarusian planes from entering Canadian airspace. He made the announcement on his Twitter account.
“We are banning Belarusian aircraft from entering Canadian airspace in response to their support for Russia’s unprovoked aggression in Ukraine,” he tweeted.
In the days following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Canada banned Russian planes from flying over Canadian airspace. He also barred Russian ships from entering Canada’s ports as part of a series of sanctions against Vladimir Putin’s regime.
Russian military forces entered Ukraine from their own territory, from annexed Crimea, as well as from Belarus, where Russian soldiers had been deployed for several weeks, officially for “exercises”. Minsk claims that no Belarusian military is involved in the attacks.
On Tuesday, the United States announced new economic sanctions targeting Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and his wife, as well as individuals and a Russian entity, for corruption and human rights violations.
These sanctions target Alexander Lukashenko, ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and “Head of a corrupt government in Belarus whose patronage network benefits those around him and his regime”. President Lukashenko, along with his wife and three sons, are also inadmissible to the United States.
These measures are not directly linked to the war in Ukraine, but are part of a movement of international sanctions targeting Russia and Belarus, according to Washington.
With AFP