As you may know, Randeep—if I may—I was here in New York. We were watching very carefully with a great deal of concern the growing speculation that Russia could, in fact, launch an attack on Ukraine. The Security Council was meeting in the evening at the very time that the war was launched. The Russian member, the chairman of the committee at the time, was not aware of the fact that this was about to happen. I don't believe he knew. He certainly didn't indicate that he had any idea about it.
As it unfolded that evening, it became clear that the attack was going to be a very direct assault on Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, as opposed to much speculation that the war would be limited to ongoing conflict in Donetsk and Luhansk. What we saw right away was that this was going to be a massive attack.
A number of us were there together talking with each other about how we would respond. The answer was that we were going to do everything we could to make sure that, because we knew the Russians would exercise a veto over anything that the Security Council might or might not be able to do, the centre of action shifted to the General Assembly, which is exactly what happened. We were very much part of those conversations and discussions about how we would proceed together, what the resolutions in the General Assembly would look like and how we would begin to mobilize international support for what was taking place.
At the same time, we needed to start having conversations with the UN Secretariat and with the organization known as OCHA, which is the humanitarian coordinating agency of the UN, about how we would have to be able to mobilize all of the on-the-ground efforts to support people who would be so much affected by the war as it unfolded.
Obviously, I was in constant conversation with officials in Ottawa, both on the phone and through emails, etc., talking about how we would coordinate our activities and what it would mean, as well as activities that would be taking place in Geneva and elsewhere.
It was a very busy time. February 24 was not a date I am going to forget very easily. It was a very dramatic moment.