Zelensky has courage of a lion, says Johnson as he goes walkabout in Kyiv

Boris Johnson secretly travelled to meet President Zelensky yesterday in Kyiv, where he promised new lethal aid for Ukraine including armoured vehicles and anti-ship missiles.

The prime minister left the UK on Friday evening with a small delegation of officials, arriving at the Polish border yesterday morning. He was then escorted to the Ukrainian capital, where he held a one-to-one meeting with Zelensky yesterday afternoon at the Mariinskyi Palace, the presidential residence. The pair were also pictured walking through the streets of Kyiv after the meeting.

It is the first time Johnson has travelled to Ukraine since the invasion began on February 24. In a televised statement released last night, Johnson said Ukrainians had shown “the courage of a lion” and told Zelensky he had “given the roar of that lion”.

He added: “I thank you for what you have been able to do: your leadership has been extraordinary. I think what Putin has done in places like Bucha and Irpin — his war crimes have permanently polluted his reputation and [that] of his government.

 “It’s clear that he has suffered a defeat, but his retreat is tactical and he is going to intensify the pressure now in Donbas and in the east. That’s why it’s so vital, as you rightly say, Volodymyr, that we, your friends, continue to offer whatever support we can.”

He also said the UK would work with western allies to provide Ukraine with the “equipment, the technology, the know-how, the intelligence” to ensure it would never be invaded again. “Having been here in Kyiv for just a few hours ... I have no doubt at all that an independent, sovereign Ukraine will rise again, thanks above all to the heroism, the courage, of the people of Ukraine.”

After Johnson’s visit, Downing Street announced he had ordered 120 armoured vehicles and anti-ship missile systems to help defend key ports. It was revealed last weekend that Johnson wanted to supply missiles to sink Russian warships that are bombarding Mariupol and Odesa.

The plan to get Johnson out of Ukraine before announcing the visit was scuppered by the Ukrainian embassy in London releasing this picture on Twitter

Johnson confirmed further economic support in the form of £385 million in World Bank guarantees, in addition to the £100 million of UK military assistance for the Ukrainian forces announced on Friday. The latter includes anti-tank and anti-aircraft systems and so-called suicide drones, which loiter over the battlefield before attacking their target. Ukraine has appealed to western nations to send more arms as it prepares for a Russian offensive in the east.

Andriy Sybiha, deputy head of the Ukrainian president’s office, said after Johnson’s announcement: “The UK is the leader in defence support for Ukraine.”

Johnson’s visit came the day after Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, went to meet Zelensky. She also visited the town of Bucha, where Russian troops have been accused of killing 300 civilians, including some who were found with their hands bound and with gun wounds, suggesting they had been executed.

Preparations for Johnson’s trip had been in motion for several weeks. He asked officials to look into the possibility after the Polish, Czech and Slovenian prime ministers visited the capital while it was under bombardment in the middle of last month. Detailed plans were drawn up in recent days after the security situation in Kyiv stabilised with the withdrawal of Russian forces. Artillery attacks on the city have also stopped.

The plans remained a tightly guarded secret shared by fewer than a dozen senior aides and ministers, but attempts to keep it that way until after Johnson had left the country were scuppered when Ukraine’s embassy in London posted a photograph on Twitter of the pair. The picture emerged without the authorisation of UK officials. Johnson remained in the country several hours after it was made public and is expected to arrive back in the UK today.

Johnson said last night: “It is a privilege to be able to travel to Ukraine and meet President Zelensky in person. Ukraine has defied the odds and pushed back Russian forces from the gates of Kyiv, achieving the greatest feat of arms of the 21st century.

 “It is because of President Zelensky’s resolute leadership and the invincible heroism and courage of the Ukrainian people that Putin’s monstrous aims are being thwarted. The UK stands unwaveringly with them in this fight, and we are in it for the long run.”

Zelensky thanked Johnson for his visit in his Saturday night address to the Ukranian people but repeated his appeals for further support and called for a complete embargo on Russian oil and gas. “Freedom does not have time to wait,” Zelensky said. “When tyranny begins its aggression against everything that keeps the peace in Europe, action must be taken immediately.”

He also warned that Putin’s aggression was not limited to Ukraine and said the “entire European project is a target for Russia.”

In a separate development, Jens Stoltenberg, the secretary-general of Nato, said that the alliance was now drawing up plans to deploy a permanent full-scale military force on its eastern border with Russia.

While Nato previously operated a relatively small “tripwire” force to act as a deterrent, Stoltenberg pointed out it had now amassed 40,000 troops in the region — nearly 10 times the number it had in the months leading up to the invasion.

As part of a major “reset”, he added that the alliance was now in the middle of a “very fundamental transformation” that would see a bigger force stationed in the region in future to repel any attempted invasion of member states such as Estonia or Latvia.

 “What we see now is a new reality, a new normal for European security,” he told The Sunday Telegraph. “Therefore, we have now asked our military commanders to provide options for what we call a reset, a longer-term adaptation of Nato. I expect that Nato leaders will make decisions on this when they meet in Madrid at the Nato summit in June.”

Earlier, Zelensky called on the international community to hold to account Russian forces who carried out a missile strike on a crowded railway station, killing at least 52 people.

The station at Kramatorsk was packed with women and children trying to flee west before the Russian advance arrived, when the missile hit on Friday.

 “All world efforts will be directed to establish every minute of who did what, who gave what orders, where the missile came from, who transported it, who gave the command and how this strike was agreed,” the president said in his nightly video address.

The Kremlin has denied responsibility for the attack, but western officials believe it was a Russian Tochka-U missile, which Nato refers to as a SS-21, which was fired indiscriminately towards the town centre.

At least 176 children have died and 324 have been wounded in Ukraine since Putin ordered Russian troops into the country, the Ukrainian prosecutor general’s office has said.