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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked the British people on Wednesday for their support since “Day One” of the Russian invasion, and made another request for fighter jets that will help ensure Ukraine’s victory in the war.
Zelenskyy’s first visit to Britain since Russia launched an offensive in February 2022 comes as Kyiv backs an expected Russian offensive and its own plans to retake land held by Moscow forces.
Hundreds of MPs and parliamentary staff packed the 900-year-old Houses of Westminster for Zelenskyy’s speech. He said he spoke for the brave men of his own country, and thanked the British for their courage.
“We know Russia will lose and we know victory will change the world,” he said.
Zelenskyy arrived on a Royal Air Force plane at London Stansted airport north of the British capital, where Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was greeted on the tarmac. Sunak has become the third British prime minister Zelenskyy has consulted since the invasion, with predecessors Boris Johnson and Liz Truss also among those gathered in Westminster.
Zelenskyy also met with King Charles III and the British military chief.
Britain is one of Ukraine’s biggest military backers and has delivered more than 2 billion pounds ($3.2 billion Cdn) worth of weapons and equipment to the country.
More than 10,000 Ukrainian soldiers have also been trained at bases in the UK, some on British-supplied Challenger 2 tanks.
The visit came as Sunak announced that Britain would train Ukrainian pilots in “NATO standard fighter jets.”
“I am proud that today we will expand the training from soldiers to marines and fighter jet pilots, to ensure Ukraine has a military capable of defending its interests well in the future,” Sunak said. “It also confirms our commitment not only to provide military equipment for the short term, but our long-term commitment to stand together with Ukraine over the past several years.”
Ukraine has urged its allies to send jets, although Britain says it is impractical to provide the Ukrainian military with British warplanes, pointing out that training takes not months, but years.
However, Zelenskyy again made the request, listing fighter jets with “wings of freedom.”
Britain attacked Russia with more sanctions
Coinciding with the visit, the British government announced a new round of sanctions against six entities that the UK says supply equipment to the Russian military. CST, a Russian manufacturer of drones and parts for helicopters used against Ukraine, is among those subject to sanctions. Others targeted include five people linked to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s luxury home.
Zelenskyy addressed Parliament remotely last year, two weeks after the start of the invasion, where he echoed British leader Winston Churchill’s famous “no surrender” speech during World War II.
This is Zelenskyy’s second trip abroad, after addressing Congress in Washington, DC, in December.
Zelenskyy may be seeking Western promises of more advanced weapons ahead of a potential spring offensive by Russia and Ukraine.
Leaders of the 27 European Union countries will gather for a summit in Brussels on Thursday. Officials hope that the Ukrainian leader may make his first visit to an EU institution since the war began.
Zelenskyy often addresses EU summits only via video call from Ukraine.
Deadly shelling continues in Ukraine
The London visit comes as Russian forces bombard eastern Ukraine with more artillery bombardments, Ukrainian officials said Wednesday, in what Kyiv authorities believe is part of a new push by Kremlin forces ahead of the anniversary of the invasion.
Russian forces last day launched a heavy shelling attack in an area near the front line in the Kharkiv region of northern Ukraine, killing a 74-year-old woman and wounding a 16-year-old girl in the border town of Vovchansk, the local Governor of Oleh. Syniehubov said.
Russian forces in Ukraine are focused on efforts to “launch a counterattack” in the country’s industrial east, with the aim of controlling the Donetsk and Luhansk regions that make up the Donbas, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said.
Russian forces launched strikes near Bakhmut and Vuhledar, two mining towns in the Donetsk region that are Moscow’s main targets, Ukrainian officials said.
Seizing Bakhmut could seriously disrupt Ukraine’s military supply routes. It would also open the door for Moscow’s forces to drive into the main Ukrainian stronghold of Donetsk.
Ukrainian authorities say the Kremlin’s goal is to control the Donbas, a vast industrial region with Russia. This would give Putin a major battlefield success after months of setbacks and help him rally public opinion behind the war.
Military analysts say that after a Ukrainian counteroffensive that began last summer and wrested large swaths of territory from Russia, the war has been static in recent months.
Russia is also currently trying to break through Ukrainian lines near the towns of Avdiivka and Marinka in Donetsk, as well as near Kreminna, a front-line town in the Luhansk region that lies along a Russian supply route, the Ukrainian General Staff said.
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