Mr. Chair, one of the things I want to point out tonight is the tremendous commitment that the Prime Minister and the Minister of Foreign Affairs have shown to this issue right from the beginning of the crisis.
We can go back to November 21, when we first heard from Ukraine and from its leader that they were going to sever their ties and the agreement they were supposed to have signed with the EU and then move towards an association with Russia.
It was only about three days later, on November 24, when hundreds of thousands of people gathered in Kiev. A couple of days later, when it looked as though the protests were beginning to wind down a little bit, the Ukrainian police attacked the protesters and really set this off.
I see my colleague getting a little excited here, so I would like to point out that I am going to share my time with my colleague from South Surrey—White Rock—Cloverdale.
In early December, our minister went to Kiev. As I mentioned earlier, the opposition was confused as to why he would be there. He went out and spent some time with the demonstrators and expressed our support for their position.
From there it took off. We had a debate here in the House on December 10. The real troubles escalated throughout December and January. On January 22, a couple of protestors were shot and lost their lives while working toward freedom. The ceasefire that was put in place temporarily was broken by January 25. The violence escalated from there.
This government moved early. On January 28, we put travel bans in place on their key government leaders. Around the middle of February, on February 18, there was more extreme violence. On that date, we decided we were going to provide assistance directly to Ukraine and to the protestors there. We made a commitment to provide medical assistance and help to them.
On February 20, we moved to extend that ban. We then began to work toward putting sanctions in place. I think every one of us was very happy to see, on February 21, that we really did not have to do that, because Yanukovych left his position. We believe Ukraine will judge him and will judge his supporters. We see clearly that the judicial system in Ukraine is already looking for him. They have an arrest warrant out for him.
The travel ban had been instituted and then extended, and I think there has been some confusion about sanctions. I heard some news reports. I just want to talk a bit about that.
The same measures on travel bans and sanctions that were announced by the Prime Minister, that we were working on last week, are calibrated and will be calibrated to respond to the developments that take place in Ukraine. The reality is that travel bans remain in effect for those individuals who were covered by them previously, and we will continue to watch that situation.
We had some discussion today at the foreign affairs committee about these bans and what they meant, but the reality is that the bans are on, they were on, and they stayed on the individuals they covered before. The sanctions that were going to be placed did not then need to be carried through, because Yanukovych left, and we are just waiting to see how the situation in Ukraine develops. They will be calibrated to respond to what takes place.
We continue to work with our like-minded partners to coordinate an international response. It has been exciting, as one of the nations that has led the fight, to see that the changes taking place now in Ukraine will be, we believe, dramatic, and we hope that they will be permanent. We believe they acted legitimately in naming Speaker Turchinov as the acting president pending the May 25 elections. Today we see they have now put a government in place. Interim Prime Minister Yatsenyuk is in place, and the cabinet is to be confirmed tomorrow.
I again want to acknowledge the leadership of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, who is leading a delegation to Ukraine to affirm and recognize the new government, give them our support, and let them know we stand behind them. I should acknowledge the support we are getting from around the world as well, including from the Secretary General of the Ukrainian World Congress, who has expressed his gratitude on behalf of the Ukrainian World Congress to our Prime Minister's government and praised the individual efforts of our Minister of Foreign Affairs for his leadership and resilient position in supporting Ukraine towards democracy and ending the current tyranny.
We have been privileged to be able to be a part of working towards these changes and helping the Ukrainian people realize their freedom and democracy.