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In a surprise visit to Kyiv, UK PM Boris Johnson meets Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky

Kyiv: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson offered to launch a military training programme for Ukrainian forces on Friday as he met President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv on his second trip to the Ukrainian capital since Russia’s invasion. Johnson, who survived a no confidence vote earlier this month, was greeted by Zelensky as a ‘great friend’ and posted a picture of himself with the Ukrainian president, saying,- ‘Mr President, Volodymyr, It is good to be in Kyiv again’.

 

Johnson offered to launch a major training operation for Ukrainian forces, with the potential to train up to 10,000 soldiers every 120 days at the meeting, his office said. ‘My visit today, in the depths of this war, is to send a clear and simple message to the Ukrainian people: the UK is with you, and we will be with you until you ultimately prevail. That is why I have offered President Zelensky a major new military training programme that could change the equation of this war – harnessing that most powerful of forces, the Ukrainian determination to win’, Johnson said.

The unannounced trip was Johnson’s latest show of support for Zelensky since Russia invaded Ukraine in February but might have come at the expense of his own lawmakers. Some were angry after he cancelled an appearance at a conference in northern England, where some Conservatives won traditionally opposition Labour-supporting parliamentary seats for the first time in 2019. The trip also came a day after the leaders of France, Germany, Italy and Romania travelled to Kyiv and endorsed Ukraine’s candidate status to join the European Union.

Zelensky and Johnson laid wreathes at a memorial to fallen Ukrainian soldiers and then were taken on a tour of destroyed Russian military hardware laid out in a central square, footage released by the Ukrainian president’s office showed. The new military training programme would train Ukrainian forces outside of the country, Johnson’s office said. Each soldier would spend three weeks learning battle skills for the front line, as well as basic medical training, cyber-security and counter explosive tactics, it said.

 

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