Canada, Poland to announce Ukraine aid package

Canada and Poland will announce an aid package for Ukraine when Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird visits Warsaw next week, a Polish official told AFP on Tuesday.

The spokesperson for the Polish embassy in Ottawa however would not disclose how much will be provided to the ex-Soviet state, nor how it would be spent.

Baird is scheduled to travel to the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Latvia and Estonia on April 22-28 to discuss the escalating situation in Ukraine.

In Poland, he is expected to meet with his counterpart.

Canada, with the world’s third-largest population of ethnic Ukrainians, was the first Western power to recognize Ukraine’s independence in 1991.

In response to Russia’s seizure of Crimea last month, Ottawa announced targeted sanctions against Russian officials it said bore responsibility for the crisis.

On Monday, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper vowed to impose fresh sanctions on Russia in concert with its NATO allies and blamed Moscow “thugs” for fomenting trouble in eastern Ukraine.

Harper said the seizure of official buildings in eastern Ukraine by pro-Kremlin militants in orchestrated attacks over the weekend was “patently, without any doubt whatsoever, strictly the work of Russian provocateurs sent by the Putin regime.”

And he vowed “Canada will take additional measures” to further politically and economically isolate Russia.