‘World needs Britain’s leadership’: Ukrainian president Zelensky says during historic Westminster Hall speech
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the “world needs Britain’s leadership” during a historic address to the Houses of Parliament in Westminster Hall.
The wartime leader used his address to urge the UK and the west to provide fighter jets, telling MPs: “Combat aircraft for Ukraine, wings for freedom.”
Zelensky also directly thanked former prime minister Boris Johnson for his efforts to support the eastern European nation following Russian president Putin’s invasion of the country.
He said: “London has stood with Kyiv since day one, from the first seconds and minutes of the full-scale war.
“Great Britain, you extended your helping hand when the world had not yet come to understand how to react.
“Boris: you got others united when it seemed absolutely impossible. Thank you.”
The president presented Commons speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle with a gift of a Ukrainian pilot’s helmet engraved with the words, “we have freedom, give us wings to protect it”.
MPs, including prime minister Rishi Sunak and Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer, gathered in the ancient Westminster Hall to hear Zelensky’s address to Parliament.
Sir Lindsay told the Ukrainian president: “This Hall has been the place of many great historical events. Your presence here today adds another to them.”
He added: “As you told us last year, this is a war that Ukraine did not start and did not want.
“But it is a war you have had to fight. And our commitment to support you and your people has not wavered.”
During his address, Zelensky, dressed in his trademark khaki wear, said: “The world needs your leadership, Britain, just as it needs Ukrainian bravery… You were among those who helped before the large-scale invasion began.
“Your help was preventive. We must take these principles of preventive aid to those who are threatened with aggression.”
with aggression.”
He began his speech by thanking the UK on behalf of his country’s “war heroes”.
Zelensky said: “I have come here and stand before you on behalf of the brave, on behalf of our war heroes who are now in the trenches under enemy artillery fire, on behalf of our air gunners, and every defender of the sky who protects Ukraine against enemy aircraft and missiles, on behalf of our tank men who fight to restore our Ukrainian borders, on behalf of our conscripts who are being trained now including here in Britain.
“Thank you, Britain.”
He vowed that a Ukrainian victory against Russia would deter aggressors around the world and closed his speech with the words: “Long live the King. Slava Ukraina.”
Zelensky will later visit King Charles at Buckingham Palace, and accompany Sunak to see Ukrainian soldiers training in the UK.