Canadian ambassador summoned to Kyiv over ‘unacceptable’ transfer of turbines

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced Monday that Canada’s ambassador to Ukraine had been summoned to Kyiv over Canada’s “unacceptable” return of turbines to Germany for Russia’s Nord Stream gas pipeline.

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“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs was forced to recall Canada’s ambassador to our country due to a completely unacceptable exception to the sanctions regime against Russia,” Zelensky said in his daily message on Telegram.

Mr. According to Zelensky, this decision “can only be perceived as a sign of weakness in Moscow”.

“There is no doubt that Russia is trying not only to limit as much as possible, but also to completely stop the supply of gas to Europe at the most critical moment,” he added.

Over the weekend, Canada agreed to provide Germany with the turbines it needs to service the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline, despite sanctions against Russia and appeals from Ukraine.

Turbines are under maintenance at a Canadian site owned by German group Siemens, and Russia has accused deliveries through the pipeline of being reduced.

On Monday, Russian energy giant Gazprom began ten days of maintenance on the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline. Germany and other European countries are waiting to see if gas deliveries will resume.

The German government has been in “intensive contact” with Ottawa for several weeks to get the equipment in question back to Europe.

Germany, fearing that Moscow will soon cut off gas flows altogether, has offered Canada to take back the turbines in exchange for delivering them to Russia in order to keep them under “lawful control”.

Berlin doesn’t believe the technical reason Gazprom cited to explain the drop in gas deliveries, but believes that the return of the turbines will give Russia an excuse to extend the shutdown of the gas tap, which could escalate into a major energy crisis. ..

Ukraine, for its part, has assured that Ukrainian gas pipelines will be able to transport enough gas to Germany to offset the drop in Russian deliveries.