It's a sensitive issue: According to insiders, Canada wants to hand over a turbine serviced there to Gazprom. Ukraine therefore wants to make representations to European governments. And the Ukrainian community in Canada warns of an "obvious trick".
Canada is apparently willing to deliver a Siemens Energy turbine serviced there for the Nord Stream 1 pipeline. That's according to people familiar with the negotiations. An official of the Ukrainian Ministry of Energy announced that they had information that Canada intends to hand over the turbine to Gazprom. This was confirmed by another source.
The issue is difficult because the delivery could violate sanctions against Russia, even if the EU has not imposed a gas embargo on Russia. The German government argues that the Russian government should not be given an excuse to cut gas supplies to Europe by pointing to the missing turbine. Chancellor Olaf Scholz had said that it was a political decision in Moscow and that the technical reason was put forward. If the turbine can be used again, the Russian government can no longer refer to the alleged technical problem.
The Ukrainian government is opposed to the delivery of the turbine, according to an official at the Ministry of Energy in Kyiv. "The sanctions prohibit the transfer of any gas-related equipment," the Department of Energy said. Representations will be made to other European governments. Russian gas will be delivered west not only through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, maintenance of which will begin in a few days, but also through Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Canada's Ukrainian community urged Prime Minister Justin Trudeau not to relax the country's sanctions against Russia. As the British "Guardian" reports, the President of the Ukrainian-Canadian Congress, Alexandra Chyczij, wrote a letter to Trudeau. In it, she called for people to see through Russia's "obvious trick" to split Ukraine's allies. "Any lifting of Canadian sanctions would be seen as a capitulation to Russian blackmail and energy terrorism and would only encourage the Russian terror state even more," Chyczij continued.
