British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Saturday met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv. The visit was first made public by the Embassy of Ukraine to the U.K., which tweeted a photo of the two.
A No. 10 spokesperson later confirmed the trip. “The Prime Minister has travelled to Ukraine to meet President Zelenskyy in person, in a show of solidarity with the Ukrainian people,” the spokesperson said.
Both will discuss the U.K.’s support to Ukraine, with Johnson engaging in “a new package of financial and military aid,” according to the spokesperson, who did not provide details on the new package.
The trip comes one day after the EU’s top executives, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell, visited Kyiv and met with Zelenskyy. Von der Leyen also visited Bucha, a town just outside Kyiv where mass killings and atrocities were uncovered last week, provoking a new round of sanctions by the West. Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer also visited Kyiv on Saturday.
Zelenskyy and Johnson have spoken on the phone since the beginning of the war, and Zelenskyy has praised Johnson’s support on numerous occasions, saying “he is a leader who is helping more” than some of his European counterparts. Oliver Dowden, the chair of the Conservative Party, previously said on March 21 that Johnson is “desperate” to go to Ukraine as he has a “real emotional connection” with the Ukrainian people.