FOG BLOG CANADIAN NEWS LOG: RUSSIAN NATIONALS ON WAY TO RESOLUTE, STOPPED IN YELLOWKNIFE:

Plane carrying Russians en route to Resolute detained in Yellowknife.....N.W.T. infrastructure minister says group is part of an expedition team.......A charter plane carrying two Russian nationals en route to Nunavut was grounded this week at Yellowknife’s airport.

N.W.T. Infrastructure Minister Diane Archie told the legislature about the situation on Wednesday.

“It appears that the plane and its passengers were on their way to Resolute, Nunavut, with the intention of taking a planned Arctic expedition in a large, all-terrain utility vehicle,” she said, expressing some emotion.

“I’m just shaking. When I got the call, I was like, ‘Oh my.’”

Canada closed its airspace to all Russian owned, chartered, or operated aircraft on Feb. 27 in response to the invasion of Ukraine.

In a statement to Nunatsiaq News, Transport Canada confirmed a chartered plane that landed in Yellowknife March 1 was still restricted to the Yellowknife airport as of Thursday evening while the department, along with the Canada Border Services Agency, assess the situation.

“Potential consequences and enforcement actions will be determined based on the facts,” reads the statement.

Federal Transport Minister Omar Alghabra weighed in on the matter on Twitter Thursday evening, saying, “We will continue to hold Russia accountable for its invasion of Ukraine.”

Transport Canada did not offer any details about the individuals involved in the grounding, but a Russian-led team called TransGlobal Car is carrying out an expedition similar to what Archie described in legislature.