(OTTAWA) Canada’s foreign minister says the threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine remains high, since cyberattacks sapped Tuesday’s optimism that the Kremlin could withdraw its troops.
Posted at 5:34 p.m.
Mélanie Joly said in an interview that the threat of a Russian invasion remained real and imminent.
The minister indicated that Canada and its NATO allies want to see hard evidence that Moscow has really reduced its deployment of 130,000 troops along Ukraine’s borders, beyond video footage of heavy artillery Russian loaded onto convoys, without any specific details of where these images were taken.
Shortly before Minister Joly’s statements, the prospect of a Russian invasion had seemed to fade on Tuesday. President Vladimir Putin declared that he did not want war and wanted a peaceful discussion with the West.
But soon after, a series of cyberattacks took Ukrainian government departments and banks in the former Soviet republic offline.
Mme Joly, “extremely concerned” about these cyberattacks, spoke to her Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba, for more details on Tuesday.