The Ukraine leg of the trip was made under a media blackout for security reasons,” Canadian Press reported once the embargo lifted. “The prime minister was invited as a special guest of Zelenskyy for the state holiday marking 34 years since Ukraine declared its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

According to President Volodymyr Zelensky, the defense ministers of Sweden, Denmark, Romania, Lithuania, and Latvia, as well as the U.K. Minister for Veterans Affairs, are also in Ukraine for Independence Day.

It wasn't lost on some people marking Ukraine's Independence Day during a festival at Alberta's legislature grounds on Sunday that their loved ones were still defending their own sovereignty back home.