Boris Johnson will address the Ukrainian parliament on Tuesday, becoming the first world leader to do so since the war broke out in February.
In a recorded speech, the prime minister will praise Ukraine’s resistance against tyranny and announce a new £300m military aid package to support the country’s ongoing defense against Russia.
In his speech to the Verkhovna Rada on Tuesday, the prime minister is also expected to salute Ukraine’s “best moment” and stress that the UK is “proud to be among its friends.”
His comments will be broadcast when the British embassy reopens in kyiv in a show of support for Ukraine.
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‘Epic chapter in national history’
Johnson is expected to say: “When my country faced the threat of invasion during the Second World War, our parliament, like yours, continued to meet throughout the conflict, and the British people showed such unity and determination that we remember our time of greatest danger as our best moment”.
He will add: “This is Ukraine’s finest hour, an epic chapter in its national history that will be remembered and recounted for generations to come.
“Your children and grandchildren will say that the Ukrainians taught the world that the brute force of an aggressor does not count against the moral force of a people determined to be free.”
Boris Johnson traveled to kyiv to meet Volodymyr Zelenskyy last month
Key developments:
• Germany “not against“ Ban on Russian Oil as EU Considers Moving on Latest Sanctions
• Evacuation of rescued civilians from the besieged city of Mariupol has been delayed
• Ukraine claims that Russian forces are ‘moving their dead at night’ to disguise the number of victims
• Israel denounces the Russian Foreign Minister after he claims that Hitler “had Jewish blood”
• The Russian bid to host the men’s European Championship in 2028 has been expelled
The £300m military aid package will include electronic warfare equipment, a counter-battery radar system, GPS jamming equipment and thousands of night vision devices.
The UK will also send more than a dozen new specialized Toyota Landcruisers in the coming weeks to help protect civil servants in eastern Ukraine and evacuate civilians from frontline areas.
This follows a request from the Ukrainian government.
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‘We will fight for our land’
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, addressed British parliamentarians via video link in March on the 13th day of the war.
He asked the UK for more weapons and repeated calls for a no-fly zone over Ukraine.
“We will not give up and we will not lose,” President Zelenskyy told parliamentarians in the historic speech that echoed Winston Churchill’s famous wartime speech.
“We will fight to the end, at sea, in the air. We will continue fighting for our land, whatever it takes.
“We will fight in the forests, in the fields, on the coasts, in the streets.”
Mr. Johnson’s speech follows his Surprise visit to kyiv to meet Zelenskyy last month, praising his “resolute leadership and invincible heroism”.
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Reference-news.sky.com