LONDON, UK
Ukrainian President, Volodymyr
Zelenskyy, made a rare trip out of his country Wednesday, daring to visit
Britain in a bid for more advanced weapons as Kyiv braces for an expected
Russian offensive and hatches its own plans to retake land held by Moscow’s
forces.Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, left, welcomes Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at Downing Street in London, Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2023.
Zelenskyy arrived on a Royal
Air Force plane at London Stansted airport north of the U.K. capital. Prime
Minister Rishi Sunak greeted him on the tarmac, tweeting a photo of him
embracing the Ukrainian leader.
“The United Kingdom was one of
the first to come to Ukraine’s aid. And today I’m in London to personally thank
the British people for their support,” Zelenskyy said on Instagram.
A large convoy of vehicles
left the airport and headed straight to Downing Street in central London. Both
leaders posed briefly for photos in front of the famous black door that leads
into the U.K. prime minister’s residence.
Staff inside 10 Downing St.
could be heard applauding as the Ukrainian leader entered.
At the start of the leaders’
meeting, Zelenskyy thanked Britain for its “big support from the first days of
full-scale invasion.”
Zelenskyy will later address Parliament. It’s his first trip to the U.K. since Russia’s invasion began nearly a year ago and only his second confirmed journey outside Ukraine during the war.
Zelenskyy will also meet with
King Charles III and U.K. military chiefs during his visit.
The U.K. is one of the biggest
military backers of Ukraine and has sent the country more than 2 billion pounds
($2.5 billion) in weapons and equipment.
The visit comes as Sunak
announced that Britain will train Ukrainian pilots on “NATO-standard fighter
jets.” Ukraine has urged its allies to send jets, though the U.K. says it’s not
practical to provide the Ukrainian military with British warplanes.
More than 10,000 Ukrainian
troops have also been trained at bases in the U.K., 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 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.”
Coinciding with the visit, the
U.K. government announced a new round of sanctions against six entities that
the U.K. said supplied equipment to the Russian military.
CST, a manufacturer of Russian
drones and parts for helicopters used against Ukraine, were among those
sanctioned. Others targeted included five individuals linked to Russian
President Vladimir Putin’s luxury residences, including Boris Titov and
Aerostart owner Viktor Myachin.
Zelenskyy addressed
the U.K. Parliament remotely in March, two weeks after the start of
the invasion. He echoed World War II leader Winston Churchill’s famous “never
surrender” speech, vowing that Ukrainians “will fight till the end at sea, in
the air. We will continue fighting for our land, whatever the cost.”
Before Sunak took office,
Zelenskyy had formed a bond with Boris Johnson, who was one of Ukraine’s most
vocal backers while he was U.K. prime minister. Sunak took office in October
and has pledged to maintain the U.K.’s support.
It will be Zelenskyy’s second
known trip visit abroad since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of
Ukraine on Feb. 24. He visited
the U.S. in December.
Zelenskyy may be seeking
Western pledges of more advanced weapons before potential spring offensives by
both Russia and Ukraine.
In Brussels, there were
increasing expectations that the Ukrainian leader might also make his first
visit to European Union institutions since the war began.
Leaders from 27-nation bloc
will be gathering for a summit in Brussels on Thursday. That would enable
Zelenskyy to meet with all major leaders of the bloc in one day. Zelenskyy has
often addressed EU summits only through video calls from Ukraine.
The EU’s legislature has also
slated a special plenary session in Brussels for Thursday in the hopes that
Zelenskyy will come following his trip to Britain.
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.
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.
Russian forces in Ukraine are
focusing their efforts on “waging a counteroffensive” in the country’s
industrial east, with the aim of taking full control of the Donetsk and Luhansk
regions that make up the Donbas,
the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said.
Russian troops launched
assaults near Bakhmut and Vuhledar, two mining towns in the Donetsk region that
have been among Moscow’s key targets, Ukrainian officials said.
Seizing Bakhmut could severely
disrupt Ukraine’s military supply routes. It would also open a door for
Moscow’s forces to drive toward key Ukrainian strongholds in Donetsk.
Ukrainian authorities say the
Kremlin’s goal is to complete full control of the Donbas, an expansive
industrial area bordering Russia. That would give Russian President Vladimir
Putin a major battlefield success after months of setbacks and help him rally public
opinion behind the war.
Military analysts say that
after a Ukrainian counteroffensive that started last summer and recaptured
large areas from Russia, the war has been largely static in recent months.
Moscow, meanwhile, believes
Ukraine is preparing its own battlefield push.
The Russian-installed leader
of the occupied Luhansk region said Wednesday the situation in some areas is
“very difficult” because Kyiv is mustering forces for a counterattack.
Leonid Pasechnik told Russian
state TV that the situation is “very difficult” in areas around a key Russian
supply route. “Unfortunately, the enemy is accumulating sufficient reserves
there, forces to counterattack, to return the lost territories,” he said.
It wasn’t possible to verify
the claims by the two sides. - AP
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