Volodymyr Zelensky delivers historic address to the House of Commons
‘We will fight them in the sea, air, forests, fields and streets… we will not surrender’: President Zelensky echoes Churchill’s famous WWII speech in moving address to Commons and gets a standing ovation as he vows to defeat Putin’s invasion of Ukraine
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenksy today delivered a historic virtual address to MPs in the Commons Mr Zelensky channeled Winston Churchill as he vowed to fight Russian forces on the land, at sea and in the airMr Zelensky was given a lengthy standing ovation by MPs both before and after he delivered his remarksBoris Johnson said UK will give ‘our Ukrainian friends with the weapons they need to defend their homeland’
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky today channelled Winston Churchill’s wartime defiance as he delivered a historic address to the House of Commons.
Mr Zelensky was given a standing ovation by MPs both before and after his speech in which he compared Ukraine’s fight against Russia to Britain’s Second World War struggle against Nazi Germany.
Drawing on Churchill’s iconic ‘we shall fight them on the beaches’ wartime address in June 1940, he said Ukrainians will fight against Moscow’s forces on land, sea and in the air.
Mr Zelensky said: ‘We will not give up and we will not lose. We will fight to the end, at sea, in the air, we will continue fighting for our land, whatever the cost.
‘We will fight in the forests, in the fields, on the shores, in the streets.’
He said Ukraine is fighting a ‘war that we didn’t start and we didn’t want’ as he told MPs ‘we do not want to lose what we have, what is ours’.
Comparing Ukraine to the UK in World War Two, Mr Zelensky said Ukrainians are fighting to save their country ‘just the same way as you once didn’t want to lose your country when Nazis started to fight your country and you had to fight for Britain’.
He also said more than 50 children have now been killed in the Russian invasion, telling the Commons: ‘These are the children that could have lived, but these people have taken them away from us.’
Boris Johnson responded to the address by telling MPs that ‘Britain and our allies are determined to press on with supplying our Ukrainian friends with the weapons they need to defend their homeland as they deserve’.
The Prime Minister said the UK will also ‘press on with tightening the economic vice around Vladimir Putin and we will stop importing Russian oil’.
He added: ‘We will employ every method that we can – diplomatic, humanitarian and economic – until Vladimir Putin has failed in this disastrous venture and Ukraine is free once more.’
The address by Mr Zelensky came as the UK Government faced mounting criticism over its visa scheme for Ukrainian refugees.
Ministers have been slammed by critics over the slow pace of processing applications amid wider calls for Britain to put in place a more generous scheme to help people fleeing the Russian invasion.
The Government is now scrambling to improve the situation, with Defence Secretary Ben Wallace having offered military support to the Home Office to help deal with the backlog of people trying to get into the UK.
Meanwhile, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has announced a new visa processing centre is being set up in Lille in northern France following reports that refugees arriving in Calais were being told they must go to Paris or Brussels to apply.
Mr Johnson delivered an update on the Ukraine crisis to his Cabinet this morning. Downing Street said the PM told his senior ministers that the UK is continuing to supply ‘lethal defensive aid and equipment’ to bolster the Ukrainian forces’ ‘heroic’ resistance in the face of the Russian onslaught.
The premier said the UK would be ‘as generous as we could’ in its support for Ukrainian refugees.
Mr Johnson also hosted a meeting of the leaders of the Visegrad group of countries – the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland – during which he labelled Vladimir Putin’s invasion a ‘catastrophic venture’.
Mr Zelensky was given a standing ovation by MPs both before and after his speech in which he compared Ukraine’s fight against Russia to Britain’s World War Two struggle against Nazi Germany
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky today channeled Winston Churchill as he delivered a historic address to the House of Commons.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson poses with Slovakia’s Prime Minister Eduard Heger today in London ahead of a meeting of the V4 group of nations
The UK Government is facing mounting criticism over its visa scheme for Ukrainian refugees. People are pictured today boarding a bus to Warsaw in Przemysl, Poland
Mr Zelensky began his address to the Commons just after 5pm as he set out the battle Ukraine has faced since the invasion began 13 days ago.
He said: ‘We are the country that is saving people despite having to fight one of the biggest armies in the world.
‘We have to fight the helicopters, rockets, the question for us now is “to be or not to be”. Oh no, this Shakespearean question. For 13 days this question could have been asked but now I can give you a definitive answer, it is definitely yes, to be.
‘I would like to remind you the words that the United Kingdom has already heard which are important again.
‘We will not give up and we will not lose. We will fight to the end, at sea, in the air, we will continue fighting for our land, whatever the cost.
‘We will fight in the forests, in the fields, on the shores, in the streets.
‘I would like to add that we will fight on the banks of different rivers and we are looking for your help, for the help of the civilised countries.’
Mr Zelensky has repeatedly called on NATO to enforce a no-fly zone over Ukraine but allied nations including the UK have ruled it out because of fears it could trigger a full-blown war between Russia and the West.
The Ukrainian President urged Mr Johnson to reconsider as he also called for Britain to go further on sanctions.
He said: ‘We were thankful for this help and very grateful to you Boris, please increase the pressure of sanctions against this country and please recognise this country as a terrorist state and please make sure that our Ukrainian skies are safe.
‘Please make sure that you do what needs to be done.’
Mr Johnson raised a point of order in the Commons immediately after Mr Zelensky had finished delivering his remarks.
The PM said his counterpart is ‘standing firm for democracy and freedom’ and ‘in his righteous defiance I believe he has moved the hearts of everybody in this House’.
Mr Johnson said Ukrainian citizens are ‘inspiring millions with their courage and their devotion’ in the face of the Russian onslaught.
He said: ‘I know I speak for the House when I say that Britain and our allies are determined to press on, to press on with supplying our Ukrainian friends with the weapons they need to defend their homeland as they deserve.
‘To press on with tightening the economic vice around Vladimir Putin and we will stop importing Russian oil. Mr Speaker my Right Honourable Friend the Business Secretary will update the House on that tomorrow.
‘And we will employ every method – diplomatic, humanitarian and economic Mr Speaker – until Vladimir Putin has failed in this disastrous venture and Ukraine is free once more.’
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer praised the Ukrainian President and said: ‘Every one of us has been moved by the bravery, the resolve, and the leadership of President Zelensky.
‘Invading troops march through his streets, shells reign down on his people, and assassins seek his life. No one would have blamed him for fleeing. But instead, he has stayed in Kyiv to lead the Ukrainian people and to fight.
‘He has reminded us that our freedom and our democracy are invaluable. He has promoted a world into action, where too often we have let Putin have his way.’
The address came after the Home Office disclosed on Monday night that just 300 visas had been issued out of a total of 17,700 family scheme applications that have been started, 8,900 of which have been formally submitted.
In the Commons this afternoon, Home Office minister Kevin Foster said the figure for visas issued has since risen to more than 500, while the new processing centre at Lille is expected to be set up within the next 24 hours.
He told MPs officials are also looking at how transport can be provided between Calais and Lille, but the slow rate of progress continues to attract criticism from all sides.
Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said that, while other countries are supporting hundreds of thousands of people, 600 people seeking to reach the UK have been turned back at Calais.
‘Most want to stay close to home but some want to come here to join family or friends, and we should be helping them; instead most people are still being held up by our Home Office bureaucracy or being turned away,’ she said.
Senior Tory backbencher Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, who secured an emergency Commons statement from Mr Foster on the subject, said that, while security checks are important, it should be possible to speed up the process.
‘We need efficiency but also humanity when processing applications of refugees from Ukraine, and we should warmly welcome those refugees to this country,’ he said.
Mr Foster said officials were having to deal with people presenting with false documents and ‘making claims that are not true’.
Conservative former immigration minister Caroline Nokes said there was still no sign of a promised humanitarian sponsorship visa route to operate alongside the family reunion route.
‘Snails also move at pace,’ she told Mr Foster. ‘When (he) says he is moving at pace it needs to be a great deal faster.’
Downing Street announced this afternoon that former government minister Richard Harrington has been appointed to a newly created role of Minister for Refugees.
Mr Harrington, who stood down as a Tory MP at the 2019 general election, will be made a life peer sitting in the House of Lords.
Earlier Mr Wallace acknowledged that the Government needed to move quicker and said he was offering Ministry of Defence (MoD) support to the Home Office to speed up the work.
‘We can do more, we will do more,’ he told BBC Breakfast.
‘It’s not the case that we are only allowing 300 people in; it is the case that the system has not been quick enough, which is what we’re going to address.’
Mr Wallace this morning again ruled out the UK enforcing a no-fly zone above Ukraine – a key request made by Mr Zelensky.
The Defence Secretary said the UK must be ‘realistic’ about how it can help Ukraine, with ministers having to strike a ‘difficult balance’ of offering support without triggering a wider NATO conflict with Russia.
The UK has repeatedly rejected calls for a no-fly zone because it would pit NATO fighter jets against Russian fighter jets – a situation which could easily spiral into all-out war.
A woman is pictured today carrying bags while walking past Czech hedgehogs in downtown Kyiv
Defence Secretary Ben Wallace today declared he believes Vladimir Putin is a ‘spent force in the world’ and the invasion of Ukraine will be the Russian President’s ‘end’
Russia has now committed all of the forces it massed on the Ukrainian border before the invasion, and has made only limited territorial gains – capturing just one major city, Kherson. Others, including Sumy and Kyiv, are slowly being surrounded but in some places the Ukrainians have managed to thwart Russian attacks or successfully counter-attack
Mr Wallace questioned how effective a no-fly zone would be in helping Ukraine because while no country would be able to fly in the area, forces like Russia ‘with overwhelming artillery and missile batteries will be able to continue’.
The Cabinet minister also declared he believes Mr Putin is a ‘spent force in the world’ and the invasion of Ukraine will be the Russian President’s ‘end’.
He said Mr Putin’s attack is ultimately doomed to fail because of the fighting spirit of the Ukrainian people and occupying such a large country against its will is an ‘impossible task’.
Mr Wallace said Mr Putin’s actions mean ‘he is done’ and ‘no one will be taking his phone calls in the long term’.
