Canada’s Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly said Wednesday that she has summoned the Russian ambassador to Ottawa, Oleg Stepanov, to protest Russia’s recent attacks in Dnipro that left nearly half a hundred dead, as well as recent statements by his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov.
Joly has indicated that the meeting is to «make it clear that we do not accept the sheer brutality of Russia’s recent attacks on civilians in Dnipro and to condemn face to face the anti-Semitic comments made by Lavrov,» as reported by ‘Ottawa Citizen’.
Lavrov has claimed hours earlier that the United States has organized a «coalition» with Western countries to «solve the Russian question» in a manner similar to Adolf Hitler’s «final solution» to exterminate the Jews.
«Just as Napoleon mobilized almost all of Europe against the Russian Empire and just as Hitler mobilized and captured, taking up arms most of the European countries against the Soviet Union, the United States has organized a coalition with almost all European countries, not only NATO members, for a war against our country through Ukraine,» he has declared.
Following this, the Canadian Foreign Minister insisted that «Lavrov’s comments, after previous anti-Semitic remarks, are totally disrespectful to the victims and survivors of the Holocaust».
«Let’s be very clear: the Russian regime is the aggressor, not the victim,» Joly remarked, maintaining that Canada «will always continue to counter hate and those who manipulate the truth,» as can be read on her Twitter social network profile.
The Russian Embassy in Canada has replied to Joly, recalling that Canada and Russia were allies during World War II, with the role of the then Soviet Union being a «decisive force in saving Europe from Nazism and ending genocide.»
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)