You know, when I was returning from my trip to Strasbourg, I was taking a bus from Poland. It was a regular bus. There was no space on this bus. Everyone was returning home, so that's why we're asking people not to call Ukrainians refugees. They've not given up their homeland. They want to return. They're seeking temporary asylum in the countries they are in. They want to go home to their cities.
For example, in Poland, I went to a place where our externally displaced people are, and I met a family from Chernihiv. Their house was ruined, so they can't really come back right now, but I'm sure that we will rebuild Chernihiv. It will, of course, take some time.
In those cities that were not under heavy bombing, people are coming back right now. However, it's impossible to come back to the Donetsk region or to the Luhansk region. In the Luhansk region, the one million people who stayed, both in occupied territories since 2014 and free or freshly occupied territory, do not have access to water because the infrastructure for the water supply was completely ruined. You can't live there.
Right now, our troops are regaining parts of the Kharkiv region, village by village, every day. People can't come back the very next day. Yesterday, two women in the village, which was liberated three days ago, stepped on a mine and they died.
That's another thing where Canada can help us, because we know that you're very good in the demining process. That's very much needed, because right now Ukraine is the most polluted country in the world with mines and artillery that haven't blown up. We really need help with that.
On the other hand, we understand that we need our economy to be running. We're getting this financial aid, but we understand that our country needs to rebuild back to the pre-war economy. Where businesses can work, they should work. Where people can live, they should live.
Thank you.