Segun Akanni, Toronto, Canada 
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canada is imposing more severe sanctions on Russia in response to its military strike against Ukraine.
The new sanctions will target 58 people and entities connected to Russia, including members of that country’s elite and their families, the paramilitary organization known as the Wagner Group and major Russian banks.
The sanctions, announced Thursday after Trudeau attended a virtual G7 meeting, will also affect members of the Russian Security Council, including key cabinet ministers.
Canada is also cancelling existing export permits for Russia and will not issue new ones.
“Canada is unequivocal in our condemnation of Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified attack on the sovereign, democratic state of Ukraine,” said Trudeau.
“President Putin’s brazen disregard for international law, democracy, and human life are a massive threat to security and peace around the world.”
Trudeau also says the federal government will be prioritizing immigration applications for Ukrainians who want to come to Canada and is launching a dedicated telephone line for anyone who has any urgent questions about immigrating from Ukraine.
He says Canada has arranged for the safe passage of any Canadian citizens, permanent residents and their families still in Ukraine through land borders with Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Moldova.
Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly summoned Russia’s ambassador to Canada for a dressing down after his country’s invasion of Ukraine.
Ambassador Oleg V. Stepanov met Joly at the headquarters of Global Affairs Canada on Thursday, where she condemned “in the strongest possible terms Russia’s egregious attack on Ukraine,” the minister’s office told The Canadian Press.
Joly told Stepanov that Russia has violated Ukraine’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence.
“Canada will use all tools at its disposal to make sure that those illegal acts are not left unpunished,” Joly’s office said in a statement.
Joly said she has also spoken with Canada’s ambassador to Ukraine, Larisa Galadza.
“The team is safe and the embassy will offer consular services to Canadians from Lviv as long as possible,” Joly said on Twitter. “If you need consular help in Ukraine, please reach us at sos@international.gc.ca.”
Bob Rae, Canada’s ambassador to the United Nations, called the attack “a grotesque war crime.”
“Putin is the cause of all this. We cannot let him win,” Rae said on Twitter. “C’mon people, stop pretending. War has started.”
Rae went on to call what is happening “brutal thuggery.”
“Unprovoked, evil, aggression. From a permanent member of the Security Council, during a meeting of the Security Council of the United Nations.”
Eugene Lupynis with Metro Vancouver’s Ukrainian Community Society Of Ivan Franko said the news about the invasion has left him full of terror and concern.
“We’ve been watching this build not just for weeks but for years,” he said in an interview. “When Russia invaded Crimea and eastern Ukraine back in 2014, there was always a feeling something would happen but we were praying it wouldn’t.”
Lupynis’ immediate family moved to B.C. in the 1950s but he has many relatives living in western Ukraine. He said the invasion “boggles the mind” and that everyone needs to fear what Putin could do next.
“The West has always underestimated what Putin could, and would, do … he’s rewriting history in his own pen and trying to get the world to believe it.”
Former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper issued a statement on Twitter, saying he prays for the people of Ukraine, and that the invasion is a long time coming.
“Putin’s war on Ukraine began in 2014,” the statement reads. “This full scale attack, unleashing death and horror on a mass scale, merely makes explicit what he has long planned.”
Calling for NATO allies to “stand ready to honour their full treaty commitments,” Harper wrote “Putin and his gang must be treated like the full global pariahs they have chosen to become. They must be sanctioned, excluded and punished at every turn.”
Former Conservative MP James Moore called on the federal government to table a motion in Parliament to expel Russian Ambassador Oleg V. Stepanov.
Putin warned other countries Wednesday that any attempt to interfere with the Russian military 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 guarantees. He said Russia’s goal was not to occupy Ukraine.
As Putin spoke, big explosions were heard in Kyiv, Kharkiv and other areas of Ukraine.
U.S. President Joe Biden denounced the “unprovoked and unjustified” attack on Ukraine and said the world will “hold Russia accountable.
