Ottawa Summons Russian Ambassador Following Missile Strikes on Ukrainian City

Canada's Foreign Minister Melanie Joly attends the second day of the meeting of NATO Ministers of Foreign Affairs in Bucharest, Romania on Nov. 30, 2022. (The Canadian Press/AP, Andreea Alexandru)

Ottawa has summoned Russia’s ambassador to Canada to answer for recent Russian missile strikes on the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, according to Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly, who called the attacks “sheer brutality.”

“We will ensure that those responsible for the horrific scenes and crimes in these cities and those across Ukraine answer to their crimes,” said Joly during a press conference in Toronto on Jan. 18.

“We will continue to suffocate the Russian regime with coordinated sanctions and we will continue to counter Russian lies with facts.”

Joly added that her department’s officials summoned Russia’s ambassador to Canada, Oleg Stepanov, “to make clear we do not accept the sheer brutality of Russia’s recent attacks against civilians in Dnipro.”

Russia’s missile attacks on Dnipro on Jan. 14—which struck an apartment building, and reportedly killed at least 45 people, including some children—was the deadliest for Ukrainian civilians since Russia began its three-month-long missile campaign.

The Russian government has denied the attacks and said they did target residential buildings.

‘Face-to-Face’

Joly added during the press conference that Stepanov has also been summoned “to condemn face-to-face the anti-Semitic comments made by Russia’s Minister Sergey Lavrov.”

Joly was referring to comments made recently by the Russian Foreign Affairs Minister in which he compared the West’s approach to Russia to the Holocaust.

“There’s no doubt that President Putin is a war criminal and, for Putin and his oligarchs, there will be nowhere to hide,” Joly said.

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby also reacted to Lavrov’s comments from Washington on Jan. 18.

“Our first reaction is how dare he compare anything to the Holocaust,” Kirby said. “Let alone a war that they started.”

Canada’s summoning of Stepanov comes after the federal government had previously summoned the Russian ambassador five times in 2022.

Canada also announced on Jan. 18 that it would be supplying Ukraine with 200 Senator armoured personnel carriers as part of its ongoing military assistance to the country.

Defence Minister Anita Anand said the armoured vehicles, Canada’s most recent round of military assistance to Ukraine, cost $90 million.

It comes shortly after Canada also donated an American-made surface-to-air missile defence system, which cost around $406 million.

“Canada alone has provided $5.2 billion worth of support [to Ukraine] and there will be more coming,” Joly said.

Reuters, The Associated Press, The Canadian Press, and Andrew Chen contributed to this report.