The Government of Canada will provide Ukraine with a loan of up to 120 million Canadian dollars (approximately $95 million) in connection with the border crisis with Russia, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said. The conditions of the loan and its specific objectives have not yet been named.
“Russia intends to destabilize Ukraine, including financially. This loan will help support Ukraine’s economic stability,” Trudeau said at a press conference (quoted by Reuters).
He noted that Canada was considering other opportunities to provide “financial and other support.” At the same time, the Prime Minister announced that the Canadian military would continue to be in Ukraine as part of Operation Unifier. As part of this mission, since 2015, about 200 instructors have been training Ukrainian soldiers and officers at the Yavoriv training ground (Lviv region).
At the same time, Turdeau did not answer the question about the potential participation of Canadians in a possible armed conflict, notes TASS. The politician said he did not want to talk about “hypothetical things”.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the awarding of the protest loan “the spirit of a special partnership”. “Canada is once again demonstrating its commitment to the spirit of a special partnership between our countries,” Mr. Zelensky wrote in Twitter.
Today, January 21, a meeting was held in Geneva between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken. The parties discussed Russia’s demands for security guarantees in Europe. Mr. Blinken demanded that Russia de-escalate the situation in Ukraine and noted that next week the United States would provide a written response to the Russian draft treaty.
The results of the meeting between Sergei Lavrov and Anthony Blinken are in the comments of the Kommersant correspondent.
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