Former Foreign Minister and Leader of the Canadian People’s Party (PPC) Maxime Bernier has proposed that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pressure his Ottawa ally in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to support the position of “Ukrainian neutrality”.

Bernier defended the need to reach a “compromise” with Moscow. The rally came just after Russia responded to growing Russophobia – with its center in Washington – and a series of sanctions against Moscow with an embargo on Canadian leader and US President Joe Biden,

Regarding the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, the Kremlin advocated for the country to be “denazified and demilitarized” and communicated that it would end its operations as soon as the Zelensky government established neutral status for the country in the Constitution and also recognized the conditions of Donbass. autonomous political entity republic.

“We must stop stepping up and instead pressure our NATO partners and Ukraine to find a compromise with Russia on the basis of Ukraine’s neutrality, as it should have done in the first place to avoid this war,” Bernier said on Tuesday. fair.

Canada’s opposition leader calculated that the economic sanctions imposed by the Trudeau government on Russia would only exacerbate the conflict, which he said could result in “more death and destruction” every day.

Canada, along with its NATO allies, has sanctioned some 500 people from Russia, Belarus and even opponents Ukraine since last month.

During a recent trip to several European countries, Trudeau also announced the renewal of ‘Operation Reassurance’, a NATO mission with an international military detachment from Ottawa, involving some 500 Canadian troops.

Bernier, however, warned of escalating the conflict through retaliatory sanctions, as providing weapons, rather than seeking a commitment to peace, could also lead to “global food shortages”. Both Russia and Ukraine are among the world’s top wheat exports.

While Bernier said Russia’s military operation in Ukraine was an “unfortunate development”, he pointed out that Moscow’s concerns about NATO’s “expansion” were justified.

“We, the West, are pushing and making a massive expansion of NATO through new members coming from Eastern Europe… And now NATO is at the doorstep of Russia. We pressured Ukraine to ask if it could join NATO,” Bernier said. “Are you going to defend Cuba’s right to host Soviet missiles in 1962? How many million deaths are you willing to accept in defense of Ukraine’s right to freedom of association?” he asked, referring to the Cold War-era episode that nearly brought Washington and Moscow into a nuclear confrontation. “Our policies should be based on harsh reality, not wishful thinking.”

Bernier also protested the fact that Canadian troops have been involved in “neo-Nazi” training in Ukraine for the past six years. “There are many conflicts around the world, but we are not part of it… It is very popular to be pro-Ukraine”, he said.

Bernier also called on Canada’s main federal opposition party, the Conservative Party of Canada (PCC), to stop demanding increased defense supplies against Ukraine, as well as tougher sanctions against Russian entities.

Bernier’s remarks on Ukraine’s security crisis came on the same day that Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky addressed the Canadian parliament via videoconference.

Billions of dollars in defense shipments have been sent as “aid” to Ukraine by the US, EU and other NATO allies so far. Russia warned that any supply of weapons to Ukraine would be treated as a “legitimate target”.