sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½

sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ has toughened sanctions against Russia following Moscow's attack on neighbouring Ukraine. There are now more than 1,000 people and entities sanctioned, or in the process of being sanctioned, by sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ since Russia's 2014 annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula.

A look at the measures and other actions sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ is taking:

Sanctions

— sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ has imposed sanctions on 10 more Russian political and business leaders. The government says the names of the individuals were drawn from a list of potential targets compiled by jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

— sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ has removed Russia and its ally, Belarus, off its most favoured nation list of trade partners. That now subjects their exports to 35 per cent tariffs. Previously, the only country not on the list was North Korea.

— sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ has imposed sanctions on 10 executives with Gazprom, a major Russian state-owned energy company, and Rosneft, Russia's leading oil company.

— sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ has banned all Canadian financial institutions from conducting transactions with the Russian central bank.

— sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ is imposing an asset freeze and a dealings prohibition on Russian sovereign wealth funds.

— sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ has imposed sanctions against Russian President Vladimir Putin, along with his foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, and other top Kremlin figures.

— sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ supported the removal of Russia from SWIFT, the digital payment and messaging network that connects thousands of banks worldwide.

— sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ has sanctioned 58 people and entities connected to Russia, including key political leaders, oligarchs and their families, as well as the paramilitary organization known as the Wagner Group and several major Russian banks.

— Also on the list are members of the Russian Security Council, including key cabinet ministers close to Putin.

— Other sanctions target members of the Russian State Duma who voted to recognize the independence of Donetsk and Luhansk, two separatist regions of Ukraine that have suffered eight years of war fuelled by Russian weapons and troops.

— The sanctions freeze assets and prohibit the conduct of financial transactions with any entity on the list. They also impose a ban on travel to sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ to any individual on the list.

— A ban on Canadians from engaging in transactions and activities in the non-government controlled areas of Donetsk and Luhansk.

— A prohibition on anyone dealing directly or indirectly in Russia's sovereign debt in a bid to prevent that country from raising debt to cover spending costs.

Military

— sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ plans to send 4,500 rocket launchers and 7,500 hand grenades from the Canadian Forces armoury to Ukraine.

— sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ has also pledged $1 million for the purchase of high-resolution modern satellite imagery.

— sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ will provide an additional 1,600 fragmentation vests and just under 400,000 meal packs to Ukraine.

— sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ is sending at least 100 portable anti-tank weapons and 2,000 rockets to Ukraine.

— sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ has provided $25 million in helmets, body armour, night-vision gear and other non-lethal aid for Ukraine’s military.

— sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ will send up to 460 additional troops to join the approximately 800 already deployed in Europe as part of NATO.

— On the ground, sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ will send a battery of artillery guns and an electronic warfare group. The battle group in Latvia already includes up to 540 Canadian personnel, vehicles and equipment.

— In the air, the military will send a CP-140 Aurora long-range patrol aircraft to serve under NATO command. On the water, a second frigate with a maritime helicopter will join NATO's Standing Naval Forces.

— About 3,400 Canadian Armed Forces personnel have also been authorized to deploy to Europe should NATO require the assistance.

— The federal government has offered up to $10 million in weapons and equipment to Ukraine. Included in that is $7.8 million worth of lethal weapons and ammunition.

Other actions

— sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ will allow an unlimited number of Ukrainians to apply for an expedited visa to stay for two years, without conditions like language requirements or labour market impact assessments.

— sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ has also announced a new reunification program for Ukrainians with family in sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ who wish to come and remain here permanently.

— The government has encouraged refugees to continue to apply to come to sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ through traditional immigration streams. About 6,000 expedited applications from Ukraine have been approved since January.

— sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ and other close partners are calling for Russia's suspension from Interpol.

— sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ has banned Russian-owned or registered ships and fishing vessels in Canadian ports and internal waters.

— sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ will provide an extra $100 million in humanitarian assistance for Ukraine, targeted at helping displaced people and providing emergency health services, including trauma care, shelter, water, sanitation and food. This is in addition to the $25 million sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ has already allocated to Ukraine since the start of 2022.

— sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ has asked the International Criminal Court to speed up its investigation into Russia for possible war crimes.

— sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ has banned all imports of Russian crude oil, which were already negligible in the country.

— sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ has bolstered its presence in the region so it can fast-track immigration applications for Ukrainians. sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ has already expedited existing immigration applications from Ukraine.

—The federal government has asked the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission to review the presence of the Russian state-run broadcaster, RT, on sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½'s airwaves.

— sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ has closed its airspace to Russian aircraft.

— sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ will match up to $10 million in donations to the Canadian Red Cross to aid relief efforts in Ukraine.

— sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ is cancelling existing export permits for Russia, worth an estimated $700 million in trade.

— sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ has provided Ukraine up to $620 million in loans to help the country counter Russian efforts to destabilize the Ukrainian economy.

— At the start of February, Global Affairs sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ advised Canadians to avoid all travel to Ukraine. More recently, Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly urged any Canadians in Ukraine to leave immediately.

— The federal government has also closed its embassy in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 7, 2022.

The Canadian Press