(OTTAWA) Canada’s foreign minister met her counterparts at NATO headquarters in Brussels on Friday to coordinate ongoing efforts to impose sanctions on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.
Posted at 6:07 p.m.
Before this meeting, Mélanie Joly said that the ministers planned in particular to discuss the Russian attack against a major nuclear power plant in Enerhodar, in eastern Ukraine.
Russian troops seized the power plant, Europe’s largest, after a midnight attack that set it ablaze and briefly sparked global fears of a nuclear disaster.
Firefighters extinguished the blaze and no radiation was emitted, UN and Ukrainian officials said, as Russian forces continued their week-long offensive on multiple fronts and the number of refugees fleeing the country now exceeded 1.2 million.
Mme Joly wrote on Twitter on Friday that she had spoken to the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency to discuss the situation at the nuclear power plant. “We call on the Russian regime to stop threatening nuclear sources,” she wrote. Countless civilian lives are endangered by these irresponsible acts. »
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday evening that he had spoken with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky about the “horrible attacks” at the nuclear power plant.
After the attack, President Zelensky again called on the West to impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine. But Atlantic Alliance Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg ruled out that possibility, citing the risk of a much wider war in Europe.
He said the only way to implement a no-fly zone would be to send NATO planes to enforce it by shooting down Russian planes.
“We understand the desperation, but we also believe that if we did, we would end up with something that could end in a full-fledged war in Europe,” Stoltenberg said.
Trudeau defended the decision not to implement a no-fly zone. “What we have avoided so far, and what we will continue to avoid, is bringing NATO forces into direct conflict with Russian soldiers,” he said on Friday. It would be an escalating level which is unfortunate. »
But this refusal to impose a no-fly zone on Ukrainian territory reveals a deep misunderstanding of the seriousness of the situation in which the world finds itself, said Alexandra Chyczij, national president of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress.
“Russia’s genocidal war against the Ukrainian people is not only a war against Ukraine. If Putin wins in Ukraine, the rest of Europe and the world will be threatened by his regime,” said Mr.me Chyczij.
“Russia is indiscriminately bombing Ukrainian civilians, deliberately murdering innocent people. »