The foreign secretary promised the UK would keep supporting Ukraine on the battlefield (Picture: Getty)
Ukraine can count on having the UK’s support until it is victorious, the foreign secretary has told Volodymyr Zelensky.
James Cleverly met with the president and Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba in Kyiv to discuss how the UK can continue helping its ally.
Footage of the meeting shows Mr Zelensky greeting officials and then thanking the UK for its ‘big support’ before hearing Mr Cleverly’s reassuring promise.
The foreign secretary also spoke about his previous visit to Ukraine last November – when it was ‘cold and it was dark’.
He said: ‘But this time I can see there’s more life in the city. The traffic is heavier, which normally is a bad sign in a city. But I think for me it demonstrates what I mean to be true.
‘And that is that the Ukrainian people are not going to allow themselves to be broken by this.
‘The sunshine and the leaves and the flowers shouldn’t distract us from the fact that there is still very much work to be done.
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Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba shaking hands James Cleverly (Picture: Twitter/@DmytroKuleba)
‘When we made the commitment publicly that we will continue backing you and your country until you are victorious in your self-defence, we meant it. When we said that we would do more and go further, we meant it.’
A conference on Ukraine’s economic recovery is set to be held in London later this month.
Mr Zelensky wrote on Facebook: ‘During the meeting, we discussed important topical issues: Ukraine’s expectations from the Nato Summit in Vilnius, promotion of the Ukrainian peace formula and preparation of the global summit on its implementation, as well as the London international conference on the reconstruction of Ukraine.
‘We are very grateful for the support that the UK has provided and continues to provide to Ukraine.’
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said it is looking providing at all the help Ukraine requires, from the battlefield to banking guarantees.
Mr Cleverly was also told about children who were forcibly transferred to Russia (Picture: Twitter/@DmytroKuleba)
Kyiv has long called for Ukraine to be admitted to Nato, but allies are divided about when and how this is safely possible given the war with Russia.
Prime minister Rishi Sunak said Ukraine’s ‘rightful place’ is in Nato, last week, at a gathering of European leaders in Moldova.
Russia has kept up a steady barrage on the Ukrainian capital and other parts of the country in recent weeks as Kyiv has been readying what it says is a counter-offensive to push back Moscow’s troops, 15 months after their full-scale invasion.
Ukraine has not confirmed claims by Moscow officials that its forces have ramped up efforts to push through Russia’s defensive lines in south-eastern Ukraine.
During his trip, Mr Cleverly also met children who were forcibly transferred to Russia and heard some survivors’ accounts at a centre supporting their return to Ukraine.
He said: ‘I was able to see for myself the true horrors and devastation of what Russia has wreaked on this sovereign state.’
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The UK’s foreign secretary said: ‘We will continue backing you and your country until you are victorious in your self-defence.’
