Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - February 24, 2022, Winnipeg, Manitoba ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COMA4 C M Y K PAGE A4 THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2022NEWS I UKRAINE CONFLICT OTTAWA — Canada and its allies have upped their sanctions on Russia as that country becomes increasingly aggressive against neighbour- ing Ukraine. Here is a rundown of the measures that have been put in place, and other actions Canada is taking. Sanctions ● Economic sanctions target- ing members of the Russian State Duma who voted to recognize of 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 vote in the Duma, made up of 450 members, was unanimous. ● 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. ● Measures prior to this week’s actions had already targeted more than 440 individuals and entities, and have aligned with similar meas- ures taken by allies such as the European Union and Britain. The sanctions freeze assets and prohibit the conduct of financial transactions with any entity on the list. They also im- pose a ban on travel to Canada to any individual on the list. Military ● Canada will send up to 460 additional troops to join the approximately 800 already deployed in Europe as part of NATO. ● On the ground, Canada will send a battery of artillery guns and an electronic warfare group. The battle group in Lat- via already contains 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 ● Canada 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 Canada advised Canadians to avoid all travel to Ukraine. More recently, Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly has urged any Canadians in Ukraine to leave immediately. ● The federal government has also closed its embassy in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv. — The Canadian Press Sanctions against Russia OTTAWA — The Canadian military’s limits are set to be tested, experts say, with trade-offs likely needed to offset the deployment of hundreds of addi- tional troops to reinforce the NATO military alliance’s confrontation with Russia in eastern Europe. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau an- nounced Tuesday that Canada will de- ploy an additional 460 troops to help NATO in its standoff with Russia, in- cluding an artillery unit, a naval frigate and a surveillance aircraft. The pledge came days after Defence Minister Anita Anand acknowledged concerns about stretching the military too far given its commitments at home and abroad, aging equipment and a growing shortage of personnel. Retired lieutenant-general Guy Thi- bault, who had served as vice-chief of the defence staff, said he has “no doubt the Canadian Armed Forces is strained” from all its competing demands in Ukraine, Latvia and elsewhere. While there may be some flexibility, Thibault said the emergence of the crisis in eastern Europe as Canada’s top inter- national commitment means other mis- sions “may well need to be reassessed as we look at what can be sustained.” The deployment of a second frigate to Europe, where Canada has one posi- tioned on a more or less permanent ba- sis, will put additional pressure on the navy, said analyst David Perry of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute. That’s because the navy is dealing with a shortage of about 1,000 sailors at the same time as Canada’s 12 Hali- fax-class frigates are starting to show their advanced age, with part of the fleet in dock for maintenance and up- grades at any given time. “We only have five or six of them at any given time that are really able to deploy internationally… so that’s a big chunk of our fleet, specially when we’re still trying to send two frigates each year over to Asia,” Perry said of basing two frigates in Europe. “So the math on just the availability of people and availability of deployable ships starts to get tapped out relatively quick when you have a fleet the size of ours.” The Royal Canadian Navy did not re- spond to questions on how it planned to sustain the deployment of a second frig- ate to Europe, including whether there were any plans to scale back its opera- tions in the Asia-Pacific region. Canada currently has only one frig- ate, HMCS Montreal, deployed abroad. It is currently operating off the coast of Italy with NATO. Questions remained about the gov- ernment’s plan to send a CP-140 Aurora surveillance aircraft to bolster NATO’s efforts in Europe, with uncertainty over where the plane will come from and where it will be based. Such maritime patrol aircraft pro- vided intelligence and targeting infor- mation during NATO’s war against the Libyan government in 2011, as well as the U.S.-led fight against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria. More recently, Auroras have worked alongside Canadian frigates in the Pa- cific to assist with a United Nations-led counter-smuggling effort off the coast of North Korea, known by the military as Operation Neon. Asked when Canada will deploy an- other frigate and CP-140 on Operation Neon, Defence Department spokesman Daniel Le Bouthillier said no date had been set. “As in any planning process, the Canadian Armed Forces takes all current factors into account when plan- ning operations,” he said. As for the deployment of a 100-soldier artillery unit to Latvia, Perry did not see that being a large additional burden on the military, including from a logis- tical perspective, given Canada has 540 other soldiers in the Baltic state leading a NATO battlegroup. However, he noted Canada has a large number of other military com- mitments, including the mission in Iraq, the deployment of hundreds of military trainers to Ukraine (who are currently in Poland), and COVID-19 support at home. All of this a time when the Armed Forces has been battered by months of upheaval caused by revelations of sexual misconduct and hate within the ranks, and seen recruitment and train- ing affected by pandemic restrictions. Daniel Minden, press secretary to Anand, said the minister carefully con- sidered force capacity with military leadership. “Our government is confident in the ability of the Canadian Armed Forces to generate sufficient and sustained ca- pacity for these commitments as Cana- da continues to support its NATO allies in the face of Russian aggression in Eu- rope,” he said in a statement. One of the big questions over the next month will be whether, as the Armed Forces ramps up its presence in eastern Europe, the Liberal government will decide to end or otherwise scale back Canada’s anti-Islamic State mission in the Middle East. The mandate for that mission, which has shrunk several times in recent years and currently includes about 350 military personnel, most in Kuwait but some in Iraq, Lebanon and Jordan, is set to expire at the end of March. The government and military have said little about the Islamic State for the past few years, and University of Ot- tawa professor Thomas Juneau, one of Canada’s top Middle East experts, said it’s difficult to know what the Liberals intend. “It’s a mission they decided to contin- ue (last year) because there are good reasons to continue it in terms of our re- lationship with the U.S., in terms of our involvement with NATO … and because the Islamic State is still a threat to Can- ada and the West,” he said. While Juneau argues those factors re- main relevant, the reality is that the na- ture of the mission has changed in many respects, with the focus as much about checking Iran’s influence as defending against an Islamic State resurgence. Canada has steadily withdrawn troops from the region; the current de- ployment is down from about 500 mem- bers at this time last year, which itself was a drop from the high of 850. — The Canadian Press Canadian military’s limits to be tested in Russian conflict LEE BERTHIAUME M OSCOW — Russian President Vladi-mir Putin has announced a mil-itary operation in Ukraine today and warned other countries that any at- tempt to interfere with the Russian action would lead to “consequences they have never seen.” He said the attack was needed to protect civilians in eastern Ukraine — a claim the U.S. had predicted he would falsely make to justify an invasion In a televised address, Putin accused the U.S. and its allies of ignoring Russia’s demand to prevent Ukraine from joining NATO and offer Moscow security guaran- tees. He said Russia’s goal was not to occu- py Ukraine. U.S. President Joe Biden denounced the “unprovoked and unjustified” attack on Ukraine and said the world will “hold Rus- sia accountable.” As Putin spoke, big explosions were heard in Kyiv, Kharkiv and other areas of Ukraine. A full-blown Russian invasion could cause massive casualties and topple Ukraine’s democratically elected govern- ment. And the consequences of the conflict and resulting sanctions levied on Russia could reverberate throughout the world, affecting energy supplies in Europe, jolt- ing global financial markets and threaten- ing the post-Cold War balance on the con- tinent. Putin said the Russian military opera- tion aims to ensure a “demilitarization” of Ukraine. He urged Ukrainian servicemen to “immediately put down arms and go home.” Putin announced the military operation after the Kremlin said rebels in eastern Ukraine asked Russia for military assis- tance to help fend off Ukrainian “aggres- sion.” The announcement immediately fueled fears that Moscow was offering up a pretext for war, just as the West had warned. A short time later, the Ukrainian pres- ident rejected Moscow’s claims that his country poses a threat to Russia and said a Russian invasion would cost tens of thou- sands of lives. “The people of Ukraine and the govern- ment of Ukraine want peace,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an emotion- al overnight address, speaking in Russian in a direct appeal to Russian citizens. “But if we come under attack, if we face an attempt to take away our country, our freedom, our lives and lives of our chil- dren, we will defend ourselves. When you attack us, you will see our faces, not our backs.” Zelenskyy said he asked to arrange a call with Putin late Wednesday, but the Krem- lin did not respond. In an apparent reference to Putin’s move to authorize the deployment of the Russian military to “maintain peace” in eastern Ukraine, Zelensky warned that “this step could mark the start of a big war on the Eu- ropean continent.” “Any provocation, any spark could trig- ger a blaze that will destroy everything,” he said. He challenged the Russian propaganda claims, saying that “you are told that this blaze will bring freedom to the people of Ukraine, but the Ukrainian people are free.” The United Nations Security Council quickly scheduled an emergency meeting Wednesday night at Ukraine’s request. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Ku- leba called the separatists’ request “a fur- ther escalation of the security situation.” Anxiety about an imminent Russian offensive against its neighbour soared after Putin recognized the separatist regions’ independence on Monday, en- dorsed the deployment of troops to the rebel territories and received parlia- mentary approval to use military force outside the country. The West responded with sanctions. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the rebel chiefs wrote to Putin on Wednes- day, pleading with him to intervene after Ukrainian shelling caused civilian deaths and crippled vital infrastructure. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the separatists’ request for Russian help was an example of the sort of “false- flag” operation that the U.S. and its allies have expected Moscow to use as a pretense for war. “So we’ll continue to call out what we see as false-flag operations or efforts to spread misinformation about what the actual sta- tus is on the ground,” she said. Earlier in the day, Ukrainian lawmak- ers approved a decree that imposes a na- tionwide state of emergency for 30 days starting today. The measure allows au- thorities to declare curfews and other re- strictions on movement, block rallies and ban political parties and organizations “in the interests of national security and pub- lic order.” The action reflected increasing concern among Ukrainian authorities after weeks of trying to project calm. The Foreign Min- istry advised against travel to Russia and recommended that any Ukrainians who are there leave immediately. “For a long time, we refrained from de- claring a state of emergency … but today the situation has become more complicat- ed,“ Ukrainian National Security and De- fence Council head Oleksiy Danilov told parliament, emphasizing that Moscow’s efforts to destabilize Ukraine represented the main threat. Pentagon press secretary John Kir- by said the Russian force of more than 150,000 troops along Ukraine’s borders is in an advanced state of readiness. “They are ready to go right now,” Kirby said. The latest images released by the Maxar satellite image company showed Russian troops and military equipment deployed within 10 miles of the Ukrainian border and less than 50 miles from Ukraine’s sec- ond-largest city, Kharkiv. Another wave of distributed-deni- al-of-service attacks hit Ukraine’s parlia- ment and other government and banking websites on Wednesday, and cybersecuri- ty researchers said unidentified attackers had also infected hundreds of computers with destructive malware. Officials have long said they expect cy- berattacks to precede and accompany any Russian military incursion, and analysts said the incidents hew to a nearly two- decade-old Russian playbook of wedding cyber operations with real-world aggres- sion. In other developments, Russia evacuat- ed its embassy in Kyiv; Ukraine recalled its ambassador to Russia and considered breaking all diplomatic ties with Moscow and dozens of nations further squeezed Russian oligarchs and banks out of inter- national markets. “Facing a barrage of criticism at the 193-member United Nations General As- sembly, Russia’s U.N. ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, warned Ukraine that Russia will monitor a cease-fire in the east and empha- sized that “no one intends to go softly, soft- ly with any violators.” “A new military adventure” by Kyiv “might cost the whole of Ukraine very dearly,” he warned ominously. — The Associated Press Russia’s Putin invades Ukraine, warns others not to interfere VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV, DASHA LITVINOVA, YURAS KARMANAU AND JIM HEINTZ Biden denounces ‘unprovoked and unjustified’ attack ‘The people of Ukraine and the government of Ukraine want peace. But if we come under attack, if we face an attempt to take away our country, our freedom, our lives and lives of our children, we will defend ourselves. When you attack us, you will see our faces, not our backs’ — Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy EVGENIY MALOLETKA / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Ukrainian servicemen eat dinner at the front line near Svitlodarsk, Ukraine, Wednesday. In a televised address, Russian President Vladimir Putin an- nounced a military operation in the country early today and urged Ukrainian servicemen to ‘immediately put down arms and go home.’ A_04_Feb-24-22_FP_01.indd 4 2022-02-23 10:21 PM ;