Russia-Ukraine war live: Zelenskiy thanks UK for support but says fighter jets needed to ‘protect freedom’

Volodymyr Zelenskiy will have an audience with King Charles following his address to British MPs in Westminster.

He is then expected to be in Paris this evening, French media outlet BFM TV is reporting, citing sources with knowledge of the matter.

The Ukrainian leader is then reportedly visiting Brussels tomorrow, where the EU is holding a summit.

The Guardian’s Peter Beaumont writes that Zelenskiy’s gifting of a Ukrainian air force pilot’s helmet is a clever touch, as the Ukrainian leader urged allies to supply fighter jets.

Zelenskiy told MPs he would do everything he could to persuade the world to provide Ukraine with modern planes, to help his forces defeat Russia.

He said:

We ... will do everything possible and impossible to make the world provide us with modern planes to empower and protect pilots who will be protecting us.

Peter Walker writes that Zelenskiy’s address to the UK parliament was “pure political theatre”, with “humour, emotion, a touch of flamboyance, and a very, very clear and powerful political message”.

President Zelenskiy presents the UK’s speaker of the house, Lindsay Hoyle, with a Ukrainian pilot’s helmet.

On the helmet was written:

We have freedom, gives us wings to protect it.

He says he trusts this symbol “will help us with our next coalition... of planes... wings for freedom”.

Zelenskiy says he will meet with King Charles later today, which he says will be “a truly special moment”.

He says he will convey to the King the gratitude for the support from all Ukrainians. He says:

In Britain, the King is an air force pilot. In Ukraine today, every air force pilot is a king.

Zelenskiy thanks the UK for supplying his country with main battle tanks, addressing prime minister Rishi Sunak “for this powerful defensive step”.

Long-range missiles will “allow us to make the evil completely retreat from our country,” he adds.

The UK is “marching” with Ukraine towards “the most important victory of our lifetime – a victory of the very idea of war”, Zelenskiy says.

He says Ukraine and its allies have formed a “true coalition of friends” and have already achieved “remarkable” results.

The Ukrainian leader calls on the UK to continue to impose sanctions to deprive Russia of the ability to finance its war against Ukraine.

He says:

The world needs your leadership, Britain. Just as it needs Ukrainian bravery.

He praises the UK for its help in preparing the ground for a special tribunal for the crime of Russian aggression, and a special compensation mechanism.

President Zelenskiy shares a story about the last time he visited the UK, in the autumn of 2020, where he visited the War Rooms beneath Whitehall, where Winston Churchill led Britain through the second world war.

He says he felt how “bravery takes you through the most unimaginable hardships to finally reward you with victory”.

“London has stood with Kyiv since day one,” Zelenskiy says, “from the first seconds and minutes” of Russia’s war against Ukraine.

Great Britain – you extended your helping hand when the world [had] not yet come to understand how to react.

Boris –you go to others when it seemed absolutely impossible. Thank you.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy is addressing the UK parliament now. Speaking in English, he thanks Britain on behalf of Ukraine’s warriors, air gunners, defenders of the sky, conscripts and those who will be deployed to the frontline of the war.

He says he is speaking:

On behalf of every father and every mother who are waiting for their brave sons and brave daughters back home from the war.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is about to address British MPs in a speech from Westminster Hall, on his first visit to the UK since his country was invaded by Russia on 24 February 2022.

You can watch his address live here:

An international team said “there are strong indications” that Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, “decided on supplying” the Buk missile system used to shoot down Malaysia Airlines flight MH17.

The BUK-TELAR missile system was used to shot down MH17 on its way from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur over eastern Ukraine on 17 July 2014, investigators said.

The investigators outlined their findings as they suspended their probe, saying they have insufficient evidence to launch any fresh prosecutions.

Dutch prosecutor Digna van Boetzelaer said “the investigation has now reached its limit. All leads have been exhausted” as the team began laying out the evidence it has uncovered.

Investigators added:

Although a lot of new information has been discovered about various people involved, the evidence is at the moment not concrete enough to lead to new prosecution.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, is due to address the UK parliament at 1pm.

We will be following his speech live on the blog.

Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has criticised the “public competition” among some countries over who can supply weapons to Ukraine, arguing that it “harms unity” among allies.

“Cohesion within our alliances is our most valuable asset,” Scholz told the Bundestag lower house of parliament.

He added:

What harms our unity is a public competition to outdo each other along the lines of: battle tanks, submarines, aircraft - who is asking for more?

Scholz used his speech to parliament to assure Kyiv that its future was in the EU. He said:

Ukraine belongs to Europe, its future lies in the European Union. And this promise holds true.

He added:

Putin will not achieve his goals - not on the battlefield and not through a dictated peace. That much, at least, is certain after a year of war.

Jennifer Rankin

Poland and the Baltic states have urged the EU to work on seizing frozen Russian state assets for the reconstruction of Ukraine “as soon as possible”, raising pressure to act on a legally-fraught question.

Ahead of a two-day EU summit that will discuss the Russian invasion, the leaders of Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia said “in order to be credible on this matter vis-à-vis Ukraine” the bloc had to go beyond reiterating previous commitments and “accelerate our work in the Council right now”.

The quartet of countries, Ukraine’s most outspoken allies in the EU, want western governments to use Russia’s €300bn of frozen central bank reserves to help Ukraine’s internally-displaced people and start rebuilding the country.

“Those frozen assets must be used as soon as possible, we cannot wait until the war is over and a peace agreement is signed,” the four write in a joint letter seen by the Guardian to EU leaders Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel, and Sweden’s prime minister Ulf Kristersson. Sweden currently holds the rotating presidency and is responsible for drawing up agendas for the EU council of ministers.

Last November, the European Commission suggested creating a structure to manage €300bn of frozen Russian Central Bank assets and €19bn of Russian oligarchs’ money under EU sanctions. Officials said only the proceeds could go to Ukraine, amid uncertainty over the legality of seizing the funds.

Poland and the Baltic states go further, arguing “all assets should be used to cover the costs of Russian aggression against Ukraine”.

The idea is likely to come up at the EU summit on Thursday that Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy is expected to attend in what would be his first visit to Brussels since Russia’s invasion.

Zelenskiy’s surprise visit to the UK – not leaked in advance – will raise expectations he will go to Brussels on Thursday. An unpublished agenda note shows the European parliament decided on Tuesday to hold a last-minute plenary session this Thursday, suggesting Zelenskiy could address MEPs.

At the summit, EU leaders are expected to endorse Zelenskiy’s ten-point peace plan, which calls for the withdrawal of all Russian troops, restoration of Ukraine’s borders and a special tribunal for the prosecution of Russian war crimes.

On Thursday, European leaders are also set to express support for a “peace formula summit aiming at launching [the peace’s plan’s] implementation”, according to draft summit conclusions. The document also notes: “Russia has not shown any genuine willingness regarding a fair and sustainable peace”.

We have a clip of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy landing at Stansted airport this morning, before travelling in a police-escorted convoy to Downing Street for talks with Rishi Sunak before an address to parliament.

Zelenskiy will then head to Buckingham Palace to meet with King Charles III in the afternoon.

My colleague Kiran Stacey has a clip of Zelenskiy and Sunak arriving at Downing Street earlier.