Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky begged the UK for warplanes Wednesday during a surprise visit that included a historic trip to Buckingham Palace to meet King Charles III.
The 45-year-old leader was greeted by UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on the tarmac of London Stansted airport after arriving on a UK Royal Air Force plane for only his second trip out of Ukraine in nearly a year of war.
“Welcome to the UK, President @ZelenskyyUa,” Sunak tweeted along with a photograph of the two leaders embracing and the hashtag #SlavaUkraini, meaning “glory to Ukraine.”
Zelensky later shared photographs from 10 Downing Street, where the halls were lined with people waiting to greet him with applause.
The wartime leader was still wearing his military-green colored sweater and pants as he arrived at the 320-year-old palace to meet the new king, Charles.
“It is an honor for me to be the first President of Ukraine in the history of Ukrainian-British relations to be honored by the British monarch with an audience,” Zelensky wrote alongside a photo of the king shaking his hand.
Charles, an outspoken critic of Russia’s “brutal aggression” against its neighbor, was seen smiling warmly as he greeted the Ukrainian leader.
“We’ve all been worried about you and thinking about your country for so long, I can’t tell you,” he told Zelensky, according to the BBC.
The Ukrainian leader used the reception to hammer home his main plea for the trip — a supply of warplanes along with the commitment to send tanks.
“The king is an air force pilot,” Zekensky said of Charles’ military background, and “in Ukraine today, every air force pilot is a king.”
He continued the theme when he addressed the UK’s Parliament, where he said Ukraine “will do everything possible and impossible to make the world provide us with modern planes.”
He presented House of Commons speaker Lindsay Hoyle with a Ukrainian air force helmet inscribed by a Ukrainian pilot with the words: “We have freedom. Give us wings to protect it.”
Two years ago, he said, he had left the British parliament thanking lawmakers for “delicious English tea.” Now he would leave “thanking you in advance for powerful English planes,” he told MPs optimistically.
The UK has repeatedly said it’s not practical to provide the Ukrainian military with British warplanes.
But that shifted dramatically Wednesday, with Sunak’s government saying it was now “actively looking” at whether Ukraine could be sent Western jets “in discussion with our allies.”
Even before Zelesnky’s arrival, Sunak announced that Britain will train Ukrainian pilots on “NATO-standard fighter jets.” More than 10,000 Ukrainian troops have also been trained at British bases, some on the Challenger 2 tanks that Britain is sending.
“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 had 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.”
The visit was the Ukraine leader’s first to the UK since Russia invaded late last February, and only his second out of the country in that time, following his trip to Washington D.C. in late December.
The UK is one of the biggest military backers of Ukraine and has sent the country at least $2.5 billion in weapons and equipment.
“London has stood with Kyiv since Day One,” Zelensky said during Wednesday’s visit.
The president is due to go to France for dinner with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
There is increasing expectation that he will also go to Brussels, where European Union leaders are gathering for a summit Thursday — enabling him to meet with all major leaders of the 27-nation bloc in one day.
The EU’s legislature has slated a special plenary session in Brussels for Thursday in the hopes that Zelensky will be there.
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 on Feb. 24.
“They need to have something to show before their people and have a major desire to do something big, as they see it, by this date,” Ukraine’s national security chief Oleksiy Danilov said Tuesday.
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.
Ukraine believes Russian President Vladimir Putin wants complete control of the Donbas, an expansive industrial area bordering Russia, to give him a major battlefield success after months of setbacks.
With Post wires
