Canada will return to Germany other turbines for Russia gas pipeline

TRENTON, Canada

Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly said Wednesday that Canada will return five more repaired turbines used to supply gas to Europe so Russia has no excuse to continue to "weaponize the flow of energy to Europe."

While Ukraine continues to stridently oppose the move, Joly said Canada is acting on a request by Germany.

"That was the decision that we took," Joly told the CBC, Canada's state broadcaster. "That's exactly what Germany asked us."

Canada has returned one of the six turbines used by Russian energy giant, Gazprom, but the company refused to accept it, saying it wants documented assurances that the equipment is not under Western sanctions. The turbine is sitting in Germany.

Germany and the EU approved the release of the turbine and the other five because the countries are critically short of gas since Russia has cut the supply in retaliation for Western sanctions because of its war on Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy opposed the returns because he said Moscow would see it as a sign of "weakness."

But Canada said Russian President Vladimir Putin would use the failure to return the turbines as an excuse for the reduction of gas supplies to the EU. Putin would blame the West and that could undermine European support for Ukraine, argued Ottawa.

"Canada doesn't want to give any form of excuse to Putin to continue to weaponize his flow of energy to Europe," said Joly.

Russia has cut the gas supply through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to 20% capacity and said it may have to stop gas delivery for three days because of maintenance at the end of August.

Siemens in Canada is the manufacturer of the turbines and is the only company capable of conducting repairs.