Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said on Wednesday that her government will ship the five turbines from Montreal back to Germany, despite demands from ethnic Ukrainians and Kiev’s ambassador in Ottawa to hold onto them. Joly revealed that the decision was made after a request from German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who is currently visiting Canada.
“That was the decision that we took,” Joly said in an interview with the state broadcaster CBC. “That’s exactly what Germany asked us.”
“Canada doesn’t want to give any form of excuse to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin to continue to weaponize his flow of energy to Europe,” Joly told CBC’s Hannah Thibedeau.
Six Siemens turbines were in Montreal for maintenance when Canada announced an embargo against Russia over the conflict in Ukraine. At Germany’s request, Ottawa announced an exemption for the turbines in July, and sent one of them over, but Gazprom declined delivery, citing irregularities in documentation.