UKRAINIAN MPs gave Boris Johnson a standing ovation today after he raised the roof with a Churchillian address to their Parliament.
The PM hailed the fightback against Putin’s forces as Ukraine’s “finest hour” – and said only they were the true “masters of their fate”.
Politicians in Kyiv flew British flags in the Verkhovna Rada as Mr Johnson spoke via video link.
Ukrainian MP Lesia Vasylenko tweeted: “I have never seen this many standing ovations for a single speech. Ukraine is certainly lucky to have a friend like the UK.”
The PM used his speech to set out details of a new £300million package of military support for President Zelensky’s war government.
Downing Street said it will include electronic warfare equipment, a counter battery radar system, GPS jamming equipment and thousands of night vision devices, as Russia’s offensive in the Donbas region continues.
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It follows Mr Johnson’s unannounced visit to the Ukrainian capital last month, in a show of support and solidarity with president Volodymyr Zelensky.
In his address, the Prime Minister echoed the words of Winston Churchill to the British people during the Second World War, as Mr Zelensky did when he spoke to the Westminster Parliament in March.
Boris said: ‘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 resolve that we remember our time of greatest peril as our finest hour.”
“This is Ukraine’s finest hour, an epic chapter in your national story that will be remembered and recounted for generations to come.
“Your children and grandchildren will say that Ukrainians taught the world that the brute force of an aggressor counts for nothing against the moral force of a people determined to be free.”
The UK is sending sophisticated long-range Brimstone missiles and Stormer air defence vehicles, along with heavy lift aerial drones to provide logistical support to Ukrainian forces which have become isolated.
It comes amid continued EU splits over how the Bloc can wean itself off Russian energy supplies.
Germany’s Economy Minister Robert Habeck said his country is not ready to ban gas but would be able to deal with a ban on Russian oil by the end of the year. Hungary is opposed to banning both Russian oil and gas.
