Ukrainian lobby group sues Canada over lifting sanctions on Russia — RT World News

The Ukrainian World Congress (UWC), a major international diaspora organization, announced on Tuesday that it has asked a court to issue an injunction to stop the Canadian government from returning a German-made gas turbine that Russia says need to deliver natural gas to Germany.

The group said its efforts with local allies to pressure the Canadian government did not prevent Ottawa from striking a deal with Berlin on key equipment. Therefore, UWC asked the Federal Court of Canada to intervene.

The turbine in question was used to pump Russian natural gas to Germany via the Nord Stream undersea gas pipeline. The Russian gas company Gazprom sent it to the manufacturer, Siemens Energy, for routine maintenance, which was carried out at a plant in Montreal. However, anti-Russian sanctions imposed by Canada prevented the company from returning it.

Last month, Russia said it had no choice but to cut gas flow to Europe via Nord Stream by around 60% due to missing equipment. Germany initially called the decision political before rushing later to negotiate a lifting of Canada’s sanctions, which the UWC wants the Canadian court to drop.

“We cannot provide a terrorist state with the tools it needs to finance the murder of tens of thousands of innocent people,” Paul Grod, the head of UWC, said, apparently referring to the Russian military operation in Ukraine.

The head of the organization called Russia’s decision to limit Nord Stream’s capacity « energy blackmail » and said there was « better ways to meet Germany’s gas supply needs than to simply give in » in Moscow. To know, “existing pipelines in Ukraine … could serve as a conduit for gas to Germany,” he explained, calling on Berlin to put pressure on Moscow to use the Ukrainian transit route.

UWC’s objections to the Canadian decision are aligned with those of the Ukrainian government. Both warned that Ottawa was setting a dangerous precedent that would erode Western anti-Russian sanctions.

The Congress, which is based in Toronto, was originally a Cold War-era organization representing the Ukrainian diaspora living outside the Soviet Union.

Many Ukrainian nationalists, including those who joined forces with Nazi Germany when it invaded the USSR in 1941, later fled the advancing Red Army and found refuge in countries like Canada . Declassified CIA documents showed an extensive record of recruiting such people for a guerrilla campaign against Soviet Ukraine after the war. Modern Ukraine portrays wartime nationalist leaders as heroes and minimizes or denies the crimes these individuals and their forces have committed.