Photo credit: Evraz website

Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland was asked Tuesday if having one Russian oligarch as a major stakeholder in Evraz while two others are on Evraz’s board is why they haven’t been sanctioned.

Evraz, which has a plant in Regina, also supplies the steel and pipe for Canada’s Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion.

Freeland said the steel that was provided for the TMX pipeline was fully delivered before sanctions were in place and the war had not yet begun.

She says everything is on the table and they are looking closely at the holdings of oligarchs in Canada. She also says the G7 leaders realize they have to be prepared for adverse impacts on their economies, including Canada, in putting together the sanctions package against Russia.

Evraz has 2,300 total employees across all of its locations in Canada.

Russia ready for more talks with Ukraine

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland says a meeting of G7 countries was joined yesterday by Ukraine’s Minister of Finance who asked them to continue ratcheting up the pressure on Russia.

Today, a Kremlin spokesman says a Russian delegation will be ready this evening to resume talks with Ukrainian officials about the war in Ukraine. There is no word as yet from Ukraine.

The International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN nuclear watchdog says Russia has sent it a letter indicating its military has taken control of the area around Ukraine’s largest nuclear power plant.

U.S. President Joe Biden said in his first State of the Union address that the United States is closing its airspace to all Russian flights in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He said the U.S. is working to seize yachts and apartments of Russian oligarchs.

An armoured column is rolling towards Kyiv, raising fears Russia may strike civilian areas in its attempt to seize Ukraine’s capital.  There was a strike on Kyiv’s TV tower and multiple missile strikes in the country’s second largest city Kharkiv which bombed their Freedom Square, opera house and concert hall.

Minister Freeland says the actions by the G7 against Russia is the strongest ever imposed on a major economy. She says the new measures will continue to target both the institutions and the people that aid and enable President Putin and will choke his ability to fund his war of aggression.

The Deputy Prime Minister says the battleground today is Ukraine, but it is our fight, too.