“We will surrender,” says President Volodymyr Zelensky in a vibrant speech before the British Parliament:

“We will not give up,” said the president of Ukraine on Tuesday, Volodymyr Zelenskyin the first speech of a foreign leader before the deputies in the plenary hall of the House of Commons (lower) of the United Kingdom, who gave him a standing ovation.

“We will fight in the forests, in the fields, on the shores and in the streets,” Zelensky declared by videoconference, a few words with which he paraphrased one of the most famous speeches by former British head of government Winston Churchill in World War II.

The first Minister, Boris Johnson later praised the resistance of the Ukrainians against the Russian invasion and assured that the United Kingdom will use “any available method, diplomatic, humanitarian and economic”, to ensure that the Kremlin “fails”.

“We will not give up and we will not lose. We will fight to the end by sea and by air, we will continue to fight for our land, whatever the cost,” Zelensky said in a heroic and epic speech.

The Ukrainian compared his country’s fight to the one the British did to defend the UK from Nazi Germany in World War II: “You did not want to lose your country when the Nazis wanted to take it from you. You fought for him.”

Thanks and claim

After thanking the British prime minister for his support of the Ukrainian government, Zelensky called on the United Kingdom to go further in the sanctions against Russia and to promote a no-fly zone in the sky of Ukraine to prevent Russian bombing.

The deputies, who filled the plenary hall of the House of Commons, received the Ukrainian president with a long standing ovation and, after listening to him in the midst of absolute silence, they fired him again with a salvo of applause.

In his response, the head of the British Government thanked Ukrainian citizens for being an “inspiration” for millions of people around the worldadding that he is ready to increase pressure on Moscow.

Also the leader of the opposition, Labor Keir Starmer, had words of praise for Zelensky, noting that “everyone has been moved by the courage, resolution and leadership” of the Ukrainian president. (I)