Canada slapped new sanctions on Russian officials and elites Friday after President Vladimir Putin formally annexed four regions of Ukraine.
Forty-three Russian oligarchs, financial elites and their family members, and 35 Russia-backed senior officials in Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, are now subject to Canadian sanctions. Read more: Russia claims 4 ‘new regions’ as Putin declares annexation in parts of Ukraine The four regions were illegally annexed by Russia earlier in the day after Putin signed documents during a ceremony at the Kremlin.
The annexation comes after voting was held in the four occupied regions from Sept. 23-27. Pro-Moscow officials claimed Tuesday that 93 per cent of the ballots cast in the Zaporizhzhia region supported annexation, as did 87 per cent in the Kherson region, 98 per cent in the Luhansk region and 99 per cent in Donetsk.
Many Western leaders denounced the legitimacy of the votes. “These individuals and entity are complicit in President Putin’s desperate attempt to undermine the principles of state sovereignty, and share responsibility for the ongoing senseless bloodshed throughout Ukraine,” Ottawa said in a news release Friday. “Building on similar measures Canada has already imposed on the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, certain business dealings in or with the Russian occupied areas of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, including investing and exporting, are henceforth prohibited.” Putin’s proclamation of Russian rule over 15 per cent of Ukraine – the biggest annexation in Europe since the Second World War – has been firmly rejected by the West.