OTTAWA, March 16. /TASS/. Canada is set to continue its policy of anti-Russian sanctions and of supporting Ukraine over Crimea, Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said in a statement on Saturday.

"Together with the international community, we will continue to maintain pressure, including through economic sanctions, until Russia respects Ukraine’s sovereignty and international law," she wrote.

Freeland recalled that on Friday, Ottawa announced new sanctions against 114 individuals and 15 entities of Russia’s defense industry. Among the individuals are Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin and businessman Igor Rottenberg.

The Canadian foreign minister urged Moscow to release Ukrainian prisoners and to stop suppressing human rights in Crimea, which she claims Russian authorities have been allegedly committing for five years.

Canada began imposing economic sanctions against Russian individuals and entities after Crimea’s reunification with Russia in 2014.

On March 11, 2014, the Republic of Crimea and its Black Sea naval port of Sevastopol passed declarations of independence. On March 16, more than 82% of Crimea’s electorate took part in the referendum, when 96.77% of Crimea’s voters and 95.6% in Sevastopol backed splitting from Ukraine and spoke in favor of reuniting with Russia. On March 18, President Vladimir Putin signed the treaty on Crimea’s reunification with Russia. Russia’s Federal Assembly (parliament) approved the document on March 21.

Ukraine refused to recognize the referendum was legitimate. In July 2014, the European Union and the US imposed sanctions against Crimea and Russia and have repeatedly extended and expanded them.