(OTTAWA) The cabinet of Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government is meeting on Wednesday amid mounting pressure on the prime minister to take further action against Moscow in the Ukraine-Russia crisis.
Posted at 2:43 p.m.
For example, Canada could join its NATO allies in imposing export controls on Russia to deprive Moscow of sensitive artificial intelligence technology — a measure strongly considered by the United States.
Trudeau announced last week that Canada was providing Ukraine with a $120 million loan aimed at “strengthening the economy” of the country in the face of persistent threats from Russia. But the Prime Minister added that his government was considering “other measures”, which would be discussed within the Council of Ministers. And his government is under increasing pressure for Ottawa to do more.
Ukrainian Canadians and the Ukrainian government in Kyiv are calling on Canada to provide arms, impose new sanctions on Russia and extend Canada’s military training mission in Ukraine beyond the end of March.
Russia has mobilized about 100,000 troops to Ukraine’s borders, as well as tanks and other heavy artillery, raising fears in Europe and within the Atlantic Alliance (NATO) of a Russian invasion. Moscow has denied such an avenue.
Senior White House officials on Tuesday discussed some of the options for countering any further Russian incursion into Ukraine. Moscow “annexed” the Crimean peninsula in 2014 and backed pro-Russian separatist rebels in Ukraine’s eastern region, a crisis that left thousands dead.
US officials have said Washington and its allies are considering imposing export controls that would prevent Russian President Vladimir Putin from accessing some highly coveted technologies.
A US official explained that these export controls are effective because they capitalize on “the global dominance of US-made software, technologies and devices” that extend to artificial intelligence, defence, aerospace and other sectors.
“The export control options that we are considering alongside our allies and partners would clash quite severely with Putin’s strategic ambitions to industrialize his economy,” the US official said. And that would hurt sectors that are key for him. »
Three Conservative MPs in Ottawa called on the Liberal government on Tuesday to redirect weapons originally intended for Kurdish peshmerga fighters in northern Iraq to Ukraine.
The closed-door meeting of the Trudeau cabinet in Ottawa on Wednesday takes place in a much larger context of discussions in Paris. The main advisers from Russia, France, Germany and Ukraine – known as the “Normandy format” – met on Wednesday to reduce tensions and find a solution to this crisis.
Ottawa emulated its British and American allies on Tuesday by ordering the families of its embassy staff in Ukraine to leave the country.
The day before, Global Affairs had updated its warning to Canadian travelers. “Avoid all non-essential travel to Ukraine due to current threats from Russia and its military deployment in and around the country, Ottawa now recommends. If you are in Ukraine, you should assess whether your presence is essential. »