Canadian Banks Are Now Banned From Doing Transactions With The Russian Central Bank

The federal government has just imposed new measures to oppose Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and they are "effective immediately."

On Monday, February 28, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted about the update.

"Effective immediately, all Canadian financial institutions are prohibited from engaging in transactions with the Russian Central Bank — eliminating its ability to deploy Russia's international currency reserves and further restricting Putin's ability to finance his war of choice," he said.

He also said that the measures are in coordination with the rest of the G7 countries, who are continuing to work closely together to hold Russia accountable.

As well, Canada is taking further steps by imposing an "asset freeze and a dealings prohibition on Russian sovereign wealth funds," according to the Canadian Department of Finance.

These measures will help to severely restrict the financing of the invasion of Ukraine, the government says.

"Canada and its allies continue to take concerted action to ensure that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will be a strategic failure," said Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland. "This has never been done before at this scale — today we are taking a historic step by directly censuring Russia’s central bank."

"Canada is firmly on the side of the heroic resistance of the people of Ukraine and we will continue to take further action to ensure President Putin does not succeed."

The move comes just one day after the news that Canada will be sending $25 million of protective gear to Ukraine and that "there will be more."

"Ukraine has asked for more equipment to keep their soldiers safe," Minister of Foreign Affairs Mélanie Joly tweeted on February 27. "They need helmets, body armour and gas masks. Canada is delivering just that with an additional $25M worth of protective gear."

Rallies and protests supporting Ukraine took place over the weekend all across Canada with some crowds estimated to be in the thousands of people.

This article's cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.