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King Charles III met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during the Ukrainian leader’s visit to the UK. The monarch welcomed the president to Buckingham Palace on Wednesday, Feb. 8. According to the BBC, the King told President Zelenskyy, “We’ve all been worried about you and thinking about your country for so long, I can’t tell you.”
Prior to their meeting, the president delivered a speech to Parliament at Westminster Hall. In his remarks, Zelenskyy spoke of his upcoming meeting with King Charles, admitting, “It will be a truly special moment for me, for our country and in particular because I will convey to him from all the Ukrainians the words of gratitude for the support His Majesty showed to them when he was still the Prince of Wales.”
“And I also intend to tell him something I think that is very, very, very important not only for the future of Ukraine, but also for the future of Europe,” the president added. “In Britain, the King is an air force pilot, and in Ukraine today, every air force pilot is a King.”
Zelenskyy took to Instagram to share a photo of himself and the monarch shaking hands. “I had a meeting with King Charles III of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. I congratulated him on his recent accession to the throne and wished peace and prosperity to the British people,” the president captioned the image.
“It is an honor for me to be the first President of Ukraine in the history of Ukrainian-British relations to be honored by the British monarch with an audience,” Zelenskyy continued. “I am grateful to His Majesty for the warm welcome and for supporting Ukrainian citizens who have taken refuge from the war in the United Kingdom.”
Last March, Charles expressed his support for Ukraine following the Russian invasion. In a speech remembering Sir David Amess, who was murdered in 2021, the royal said: “What we saw in the terrible tragedy in Southend was an attack on democracy, on an open society, on freedom itself. We are seeing those same values under attack today in Ukraine in the most unconscionable way. In the stand we take here, we are in solidarity with all those who are resisting brutal aggression.”