The Russian Foreign Ministry summoned Canada's deputy ambassador to protest, after Ottawa announced the confiscation of a Moscow transport plane.
"Canada's Deputy Ambassador to Moscow Brian Ebel was summoned on June 14 to protest Ottawa's seizure of the Antonov An-124 transport aircraft of Volga-Dnepr Airlines, which has been illegally detained at Toronto airport since February 2022," the Russian Foreign Ministry said today.
The agency warned that the Canadian government's actions "on an anti-Russian path" would have extremely serious consequences for bilateral relations.
An Antonov An-124 aircraft of Russian airline Volga-Dnepr parked at Pearson Airport, Toronto, Canada on April 25. Photo: Reuters
The move comes after the Canadian government announced on June 10 that it had seized an An-124 cargo plane owned by Russian airline Volga-Dnepr Airlines parked at Toronto’s Pearson Airport. Volga-Dnepr Airlines is one of the organizations that Ottawa has imposed sanctions on in recent months.
"It's illegal. It's theft. The Trudeau government has shown that there is no rule of law in Canada," said Russian Ambassador to Ottawa Oleg Stepanov.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on June 14 that Moscow would take retaliatory measures against Ottawa. "Decisions on what measures and methods will be made when appropriate," she said.
The An-124 was chartered by the Canadian government from a Russian airline to transport a batch of Covid-19 test kits from China. The plane landed in Toronto on February 27, 2022, just hours before Canada closed its airspace to all Russian aircraft. The An-124 was then forced to stay at Pearson Airport while the crew was allowed to return to Russia.
Canada is a member of NATO and the G7. It has imposed many sanctions on Russia in response to Moscow's campaign in Ukraine. Canada is also one of the countries that actively provides military support to Ukraine to fight Russia, with a total estimated value of about 8 billion USD.
Nhu Tam (According to Reuters, TASS )
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