Trudeau announces sanctions on Putin, Russian foreign minister

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Friday that Canada would impose sanctions against Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Russian foreign minister and Putin’s chief of staff for their involvement in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“Canada will impose severe sanctions on President Putin, his Chief of Staff, and his Foreign Minister – the men who bear the greatest responsibility for the death and destruction occurring in Ukraine,” Trudeau tweeted.

“We will also impose sanctions on Belarus and its leaders for abetting President Putin’s invasion. These sanctions will target 57 individuals, and are in addition to the dozens of existing sanctions already levelled against Alexander Lukashenko’s regime,” he added.

Trudeau also said that Canada supported kicking Russia out of the SWIFT banking system — a move that the Biden administration has not officially supported yet.

The development comes as the United States earlier on Friday announced that it would be sanctioning Putin, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, the Russian defense minister and a slew of Russian security council members. 

“The president’s strong view and strong principle from the beginning of this conflict… has been to take action in steps in alignment with our European partners and this is evidence of that,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said. 

The U.S.’s move was also mirrored by the European Union and United Kingdom. 

The announcements come amid the backdrop of violent conflict in Ukraine as explosions, automatic weapon fire and loud bangs were heard on the streets of Kyiv early Saturday morning local time.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned on Friday that Kyiv would face an “assault” from Russian forces later that night.

“Many cities of our state are under attack. Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, our boys, our girls in Donbas, cities of the south of Ukraine. Kyiv requires special attention. We cannot lose the capital,” the Ukrainian president said in an address.