Echoes of Churchill in epic wartime address
<p>Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has delivered an historic wartime address to the House of Commons, vowing "we will not give up".</p>
<p>Zelenskyy was given a standing ovation by MPs both before and after he gave his speech via Zoom, in which he likened Russia's invasion of Ukraine to Britain's fight against Germany in World War II.</p>
<p>The Ukraine president's address mirrored the words of Winston Churchill's famous "we shall fight on the beaches" speech, following Britain's devastation in the Battle of Dunkirk in June 1940.</p>
<p>Mr Zelenskyy said, "We will not give up and we will not lose. We will fight to the end, at sea, in the air, we will continue fighting for our land, whatever the cost."</p>
<p>"We will fight in the forests, in the fields, on the shores, in the streets."</p>
<p>He went on to say that Ukraine was fighting a "war that we didn't start and we didn't want", as he told British MPs "we do not want to lose what we have, what is ours."</p>
<p>Comparing Ukraine to the UK standing alone more than 80 years ago, Mr Zelenskyy said Ukrainians are fighting to save their country "just the same way as you once didn't want to lose your country when Nazis started to fight your country and you had to fight for Britain."</p>
<p>He said more than 50 children have now been killed in the Russian invasion, telling the House of Commons, "These are the children that could have lived, but these people have taken them away from us."</p>
<p>UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson responded to the address, saying "Britain and our allies are determined to press on with supplying our Ukrainian friends with the weapons they need to defend their homeland as they deserve."</p>
<p>He added, "We will employ every method that we can – diplomatic, humanitarian and economic – until Vladimir Putin has failed in this disastrous venture and Ukraine is free once more."</p>
<p><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p>
