Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I apologize for these technical difficulties. That's why I was late in joining the meeting. I apologize to the witnesses, whom I would like to thank for being here and for giving us the benefit of their comments.
It's an open secret that when Canada decided to withdraw staff from its embassy even before the conflict began, we expressed a number of reservations, as we did when Canada decided to move its embassy from Kyiv to Lviv. We also expressed reservations when Canada decided to close its embassy in Lviv.
Some countries maintained their presence in Ukraine, or have since reopened their embassy. I'm thinking of Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, the European Union, France, Italy, Poland, Slovenia, Spain and Turkey. We know that staff from the British embassy are also in Lviv. The United States hopes to reopen theirs before the end of May. Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs mentioned the possibility of reopening Canada's embassy when it was secure enough to do so.
How can we determine when conditions will be secure and safe? Isn't that just a way of indefinitely postponing the reopening of our embassy in Ukraine?