Mr. Speaker, Friday marked the one-year anniversary of the start of the Euromaidan protests, a popular, grassroots rejection of former Ukrainian President Yanukovych and his refusal to sign the EU-Ukraine association agreement.
Thousands of people gathered in Kyiv's Independence Square on Friday to commemorate and honour those who died protecting the rights of Ukrainian citizens. President Poroshenko also signed a decree recognizing the Heavenly Hundred as heroes of Ukraine.
Russia's response to last year's events has also been significant, including military occupation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and an active role in destabilizing eastern Ukraine by supplying soldiers and heavy arms to the Kremlin's proxy militias in Donetsk and Luhansk.
Our government continues to stand with Ukraine in the face of its current challenges. Whether it takes five months or fifty years to liberate it, we will never, ever recognize the illegal Russian occupation of any Ukrainian territory.
I say to President Putin: Crimea is Ukraine, Luhansk is Ukraine, Donetsk is Ukraine.
Our Prime Minister made it clear to Putin at the G20, “You need to get out of Ukraine”.