National Defence committee  Great. I have only five minutes. I have too many questions. I want to go back to my question where I left off. Sponsorship may be at or above a certain level, and mentorship in the lower ranks. When you look at women, would you say that everybody above a lieutenant-colonel should be sponsored?

National Defence committee  What would be the recommendation there? It's almost like you need to bring a whole group along. How can we do that? Is there a recommendation around that? If you don't have it now, I would encourage you to try to send something in. That's for both of you. Again, this has just come to me.

National Defence committee  I have another question. Before I came here, I was an executive in the financial sector. We talked a lot about mentorship versus sponsorship, and I wanted to get your thoughts on it. I was thinking, once you get up the ladder, you actually need to be sponsored, because that's what happens for males.

National Defence committee  Thank you. Thank you so much for your excellent presentations. I have a lot of questions and only five minutes. I'm thinking about your comment, Major Perron, in terms of how we can bring more men along. You didn't ask that question, but that's kind of how I'm.... How do we do it better?

National Defence committee  Thank you.

National Defence committee  It's okay. Thank you.

National Defence committee  Thank you, General Vance, for being here. It's a pleasure to meet you for the first time. I'm a fairly new committee member. My first question I think might be slightly odd, but it's a curiosity for me. How has Operation Impact affected our relationship with Turkey, if it has in any way?

National Defence committee  That's great. Thank you. Very recently this committee travelled to the UN. The message we heard from them was that they were overwhelmingly very positive that Canada's back supporting peace operations and that our contributions matter. Can you give us an update on what we have achieved so far and what we are working on when it comes to the Canadian Armed Forces re-engaging with the United Nations?

National Defence committee  Thank you. Perhaps we could hear from Moldova.

National Defence committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have a couple more questions. Thank you again. You know, just listening to the conversation today, to my mind, it sounds like.... I'm trying to figure out what the endgame is for Russia and what they're trying to achieve. It seems as though they're trying to cause quite a bit of havoc in the region.

National Defence committee  The last word goes to Georgia.

National Defence committee  Thank you so much, Mr. Chair, and thanks to everyone for their excellent presentations. I might actually have time at the end of my presentation to pass it over to Mr. Wrzesnewskyj. Most of my questions are also directed to Ambassador Shevchenko. One piece of the story that I'm missing, and I'm sure it's there somewhere, is the Ukrainian tugboats.

National Defence committee  Okay.

National Defence committee  For me, it seems odd that there was a normal routine procedure that was happening, and then all of a sudden on that particular day, they decided that they were going to ram the boat, capture the Ukrainian soldiers and then arrest them. There was nothing out of the ordinary that had instigated that action, to your knowledge.

National Defence committee  I've read about the poor economic situation in Russia. To what extent is there a correlation between their escalation in the region and the poor economic situation in Russia? Do you have a response to that?