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Canadian Court Rejects Russia Airline Appeal, Keeping Seized An-124 Cargo Plane Grounded
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Canada's Federal Court has upheld Ottawa's refusal to lift sanctions on Russian cargo carrier Volga-Dnepr Airlines and its former chairman, keeping the measures in place against the operator whose An-124 jet remains grounded at Toronto Pearson.
The Canadian Press reported the decision on August 18, after a Federal Court judge dismissed Volga-Dnepr's bid to overturn the listing that Canada imposed on the company and, personally, on its former director.
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The ruling doubles as a test of Ottawa's assertive sanctions-enforcement model, which Canada describes as the first and only regime among G7 states allowing the seizure, forfeiture, and redistribution of sanctioned persons' assets.
The framework lets Ottawa move from freezing to seizure and court-ordered forfeiture, with proceeds potentially steered toward reconstruction, restoring international peace, or compensating victims.
The judge found that the airline had not shown that the ministerial decision was "unreasonable or procedurally unfair," rejecting a challenge the carrier had repeatedly pressed.
Volga-Dnepr argued it stopped moving military cargo in 2018 and played no part in Russia's full-scale invasion. Global Affairs Canada countered that the operator helped Moscow circumvent allied restrictions on goods for military or sensitive-sector uses, citing alleged contracts and subsidies.
Canada first seized the Antonov An-124 in June 2023 at Toronto Pearson, where the jet had landed just before Russia's 2022 invasion and could not leave once the airspace closed. The aircraft ranks among the world's largest serially produced cargo planes, built for outsized loads, and has since run up more than $1 million in unpaid parking fees.
In February 2025, Ottawa broadened the seizure order to name a wider set of parties believed to own or control the jet, including the Volga-Dnepr Group, former chairman Aleksey Isaykin, and Sberbank.
That order vested the federal public works minister with control of the aircraft but did not, on its own, transfer title to Canada. Seizure does not equal confiscation: permanent forfeiture requires a separate application to a provincial court.
The fight to convert immobilized Russian assets into direct support for Ukraine reaches well beyond Toronto.
Kyiv and London have advanced a plan to finance Ukraine's defense using proceeds from frozen Russian assets under the G7's ERA arrangement, which channels earnings from immobilized Russian state funds toward air defense, long-range munitions, and drones.
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