Russian Ambassador Oleg Stepanov said during a CTV question period: "I am loyal to my country, and I stand with my president and stand with the forces on the ground." "My colleagues and I here at the embassy are 100 percent confident that we are on the right side of history."

In a tense and wide-ranging interview with CTV program host Ivan Solomon, Stepanov flatly denied that his country is committing war crimes and targeting civilians in Ukraine, even going so far as to assert that the Ukrainian forces themselves are responsible for the atrocities committed and blaming Russia. He also fully supports what he calls his country's "special military operation" in Ukraine.

Stepanov claimed that "the Russian army only destroys military facilities." He also confirmed that Russian efforts to protect civilians "are one of the reasons this operation is proceeding very slowly."

Despite Russian diplomats being accused of spreading misinformation, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau rejected calls to expel them from Canada, saying that such actions would lead to a similar move from Russia.

Trudeau told reporters on April 6: "We don't want to be without resources in Moscow just as we don't want to cut off diplomatic communication with them."

In this dialogue, Stepanov tried to portray his country's war as an act to protect the "Russian race" and support the independence of the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics in the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine.