Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked the British people on Wednesday for their support since “Day One” of Russia’s invasion, and made another plea for fighter jets that he said would help ensure Ukraine’s victory in the war.
Zelenskyy’s first visit to Britain since Russia launched its attack in February 2022 comes as Kyiv braces for an expected Russian offensive and hatches its own plans to retake land held by Moscow’s forces.
Hundreds of lawmakers and parliamentary staff packed the 900-year-old Westminster Hall for Zelenskyy’s speech. He said he was speaking on behalf of the brave people of his own country, and he thanked Britons for their bravery.
“We know Russia will lose and we we know victory will change the world,” he said.
Zelenskyy arrived on a Royal Air Force plane at London Stansted airport north of the U.K. capital, where Prime Minister Rishi Sunak greeted him on the tarmac. Sunak is already the third British prime minister Zelenskyy has consulted with since the invasion, with predecessors Boris Johnson and Liz Truss also among the assembled at Westminster.
The U.K. is one of the biggest military backers of Ukraine and has sent the country more than 2 billion pounds ($3.2 billion Cdn) in weapons and equipment.
More than 10,000 Ukrainian troops have also been trained at bases in the U.K., some on the Challenger 2 tanks that Britain is sending.
The visit comes as Sunak announced that Britain will train Ukrainian pilots on “NATO-standard fighter jets.”
“I am proud that today we will expand that training from soldiers to marines and fighter jet pilots, ensuring Ukraine has a military able to defend its interests well into the future,” Sunak said. “It also underlines our commitment to not just provide military equipment for the short term, but a long-term pledge to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Ukraine for years to come.”
Ukraine has urged its allies to send jets, though Britain says it’s not practical to provide the Ukrainian military with British warplanes, indicating the training takes not months, but years.
Nevertheless, Zelenskyy again made the request, equating fighter jets with “wings of freedom.”
Zelenskyy, who also met at Buckingham Palace on Wednesday with King Charles III, noted that the British monarch was a qualified military pilot.
“The king is an air force pilot,” Zekenskyy said, and “in Ukraine today, every air force pilot is a king.”
Britain hits Russia with more sanctions
Coinciding with the visit, the U.K. government announced a new round of sanctions against six entities that the U.K. said supplied equipment to the Russian military. CST, a manufacturer of Russian drones and parts for helicopters used against Ukraine, was among those sanctioned. Others targeted included five individuals linked to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s luxury residences.
Zelenskyy addressed Parliament remotely last year, two weeks after the start of the invasion, where he echoed British leader Winston Churchill’s famous “never surrender” speech during the Second World War.
It is Zelenskyy’s second known trip abroad, after addressing Congress in Washington, D.C., in December.
President Emmanuel Macron’s office said the French leader will host Zelenskyy and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Paris later on Wednesday.
Zelenskyy may be seeking Western pledges of more advanced weapons before potential spring offensives by both Russia and Ukraine.
Deadly shelling attacks continue in Ukraine
The London visit came as Russian forces blasted areas of eastern Ukraine with more artillery bombardments, Ukrainian officials said Wednesday, in what Kyiv authorities believe is part of a new thrust by the Kremlin’s forces before the invasion anniversary.
Russian forces over the past day launched major shelling attacks on areas near the front line in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region, killing a 74-year-old woman and wounding a 16-year-old girl in the border town of Vovchansk, local Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said.
Russian forces in Ukraine are focusing their efforts on “waging a counteroffensive” in the country’s industrial east, with the aim of taking full control of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions that make up the Donbas, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said.
Russian troops launched assaults near Bakhmut and Vuhledar, two mining towns in the Donetsk region that have been among Moscow’s key targets, Ukrainian officials said.
Seizing Bakhmut could severely disrupt Ukraine’s military supply routes. It would also open a door for Moscow’s forces to drive toward key Ukrainian strongholds in Donetsk.
Ukrainian authorities say the Kremlin’s goal is to take full control of the Donbas, an expansive industrial area bordering Russia. That 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 started last summer and recaptured large areas from Russia, the war has been largely static in recent months.
Russia is now also 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 key Russian supply route, the Ukrainian General Staff said.
