Thank you, Mr. President, Mr. Prime Minister, Mr. Chairman, honourable members of the Rada!

I’ve come from the world’s oldest Parliament to address the world’s bravest. And it is an honour to do so. Every parliamentarian serving in a democratically elected chamber treasures the ideal of freedom. Your courage is defending it. Even as the enemy came within 20 kilometers of this chamber. With many of you personally targeted, you refused to be daunted, you continued to sit and do your duty, as you have done throughout this war, because this is the way you express your sovereignty and independence for which your people are prepared to sacrifice everything. This is where you are keeping alive the cause of democracy alive in the face of the greatest threat we have faced in this century. So, on behalf of Britain and all your allies, thank you. Slava Ukraini!

President Zelenskyi! You are an inspiration, and I am proud to call you a friend. President John F. Kennedy said of the great Winston Churchill that he mobilized the English language and sent it into battle. Volodymyr, you have done the same. English is not even your first language. No leader of this century has done more to unite liberal democracies in the defense of our values. So let me say you on behalf of everyone – thank you.

Above all, let me pay tribute to the people of Ukraine. I first came to Ukraine ten years ago, in the year of the Maidan protests. I remember the sense of nervous hope as Ukraine looked to the future as a sovereign European democracy. And in each of my visits since the war began, even amidst all the rubble and destruction, the people I have met are more determined than ever to realise that dream. The soldiers who even now fight to their last breath for every inch of ground; pilots who are making stunning blows against the russian Black Sea fleet; anti-aircraft gunners beating impossible odds to defend your skies; engineers who defeated the darkness during the most difficult winter in your history. And the ordinary people of Ukraine, who have endured more than anyone could have to bear: rockets and bombs deliberately aimed at homes and hospitals, shelters and schools, torture, rape, children kidnapped. You have met this depravity with bravery and defiance, with your unique, unbreakable Ukrainian spirit, and all of us in the free world salute you.

Today we meet at a difficult moment in the struggle for Ukraine's freedom, and as always, a conflict, there will be setbacks, and we must prepare for the fact that this will be a long war. But I believe there is hope for us in the echoes of Britain’s own history. If 1940 was our finest hour, and Ukraine’s was two years ago as you resisted the russian invasion, then perhaps today is more like 1942. It was a moment in the middle of that war, when the progress on the battlefield was hard, the defense industry was under severe strain, and the populations were becoming weary. It must have been hard to see the light ahead, but they stood firm. And although they did not know about all the setbacks and difficulties that lay ahead, it was the moment when the tide began to turn and victory became assured.         

I believe it will be the same with this moment. After all, history tells that democracies who endure will always prevail. putin cannot understand that when you kill individuals and destroy buildings, no army can ever defeat the will of a free people. And that is why Ukraine will win.

Think of what you have already achieved. putin believed he could subjugate Ukraine by force in a matter of weeks. Instead, with every rocket he fires, the Ukrainian people become even more determined and their sense of nationhood becomes stronger still. russia’s military vastly outnumbers Ukrainian forces, but you have already regained half of the occupied territory. You have held the East, reopened vital shipping lanes to help feed the world, and increasingly made Crimea into a vulnerability for russia, not a strength. These victories show that russia can be defeated in its war of aggression, and has already lost nearly half a million men. putin has faced an attempted coup d'état and has been indicted as an international war criminal. He presides over an economy severely weakened by sanctions, and he has succeeded in persuading countries across Europe to significantly increase their defense spending. Now he is reduced to begging Iran and North Korea for weapons, and desperately sacrificing hundreds of thousands more men in the hope that Ukraine will yield in or its friends might walk away.

Well, Ukraine will not yield, and the United Kingdom will never walk away!

From the very beginning (of the invasion - ed.), the British people spontaneously flew the Ukrainian flags. And I want to tell you that this flag is still flying. They felt moved to show solidarity with people they have never met, with a country they had never visited, because of our shared faith in fairness, freedom and democracy. We welcomed Ukrainian refugees with open hearts. We have trained tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers, we led the way in delivering helicopters, ships, tanks, armored vehicles, air defense and electronic warfare systems, anti-tank missile systems such as NLAW, Javelin, Storm Shadow missiles to reach behind enemy lines and defend against aggression in the Black Sea. Humanitarian and economic support, and the strongest set of sanctions ever to deliberate russia’s economy.

I am proud that we have provided over nine billion pounds of support so far, but I want to go even further. Today, President Zelenskyi and I have agreed a new partnership between our two countries designed to last a hundred years or more. Our partnership is about defense and security. It is about the unique ties between our peoples and cultures. It will back you to build a new and better Ukraine, attracting new investment in jobs, homes, funding English language training for Ukrainians, while you make English the language of business and diplomacy. And it's also about holding russia accountable for war crimes, because russia must pay to rebuild what they have destroyed. Perhaps all this will support Ukraine complete the historical path you have chosen: to become a free, independent democracy in the center of Europe. And our alliance is unbreakable.

First, we will help you win the war. russia thinks that they will outlast us, that our resolve is faltering. It is not. In each of the last two years we’ve sent you £2.3 billion of military aid. This year we are going to increase that with the biggest single defense package so far, with £2.5 billion.

This package will include more air defense equipment, more anti-tank weapons, more long-range missiles, thousands of rounds more ammunition and artillery shells, and training for thousands more soldiers. In total, the UK will provide over 12 billion pounds of aid to Ukraine. So, be in no doubt, we are not walking away, and putin will never outlast us. We are here for Ukraine as long as it takes.

But the best way to make sure Ukraine has the weapons it needs is to help Ukraine to produce those weapons themselves. So, our second action is to work with you to massively increase defense industrial production. I believe that this will be a source of huge economic strength and value for Ukraine in the future. So, even as the UK donates more equipment, we will help make you the armory of the free world. British companies like BAE Systems, IMS, are already supporting your Armed Forces from within Ukraine, and we will go further, starting today with £200 million to manufacture thousands of new drones both here in Ukraine and in the United Kingdom. This is the single largest package of drones given to Ukraine by any nation.

Thirdly, today's agreement supports your historic choice to join NATO. Because I believe that Ukraine's rightful place is in NATO. But it isn’t just about how NATO benefits Ukraine, it is about how Ukraine benefits NATO. Your understanding of modern war comes not from a textbook but from the battlefield, your Armed Forces are experienced, innovative and brave. Ukraine belongs in NATO and NATO will be stronger with Ukraine.

Last year's Vilnius Summit made important steps towards membership, but I want us to be even more ambitious at the Washington Summit this June. We made a solemn promise to you, along with 30 other countries, to provide new bilateral security assurances. Today, the UK is the first to fulfil that promise. President Zelenskyi and I have just signed a new security agreement. If russia ever again invades Ukraine again, the UK will come to your aid with swift and sustained security assistance. We will provide modern equipment on land, sea and in the air, sanctions against the russian economy and we will work closely with our allies to do so. You will not have to argue for what you need it. The United Kingdom will be there from the first moment to the last.

I believe this is the greatest moment in the history of our relationship with unprecedented security guarantees. This moment defines our future as allies working together for the security of Europe and sitting side by side among the free countries of the world. In the words of the great Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko, you have broken your chains and joined the family of free nations because, in the end, it is about more than security. It's about Ukraine’s right as an independent nation to determine its own future, it's about the right of all nations, enshrined in the UN Charter, to determine their own future.

As Churchill said, there are two kinds of nationalism: “The crazw for supreme domination by weight or force, which he called a danger and a vice”, or nationalism that comes from “love of country and readiness to die for country, love of traditions, culture, and the gradual development of a social entity worthy of nationality. He called it “the first of the virtues”.

I cannot think of a better description for the two sides of this war or a better description of the battle that will define our age, because this war may have begun in the deluded mind of a man who was captured by the mirage of a long-dead empire. If putin wins in Ukraine, he will not stop there. That's why President Biden, the EU, NATO allies, the G7 and beyond have seen the centrality of this century-defining struggle, and they have rallied to your cause. And we cannot and will not falter now, because aid to Ukraine is an investment in our own collective security. Only Ukraine's victory will deter putin from attacking other countries in the future and prove our enemies wrong when they say that democracies have neither the patience nor the resources for long wars.

This is the choice before us. These are the stakes. If we waver now, we embolden not just putin, but also his allies in North Korea, Iran and elsewhere. Or we will rally to Ukraine’s side and defend our common cause – of democracy over dictatorship, freedom over tyranny, and the rule of law over anarchy. This is what you are fighting for. And, to echo Churchill, we must give you the tools and I know you will finish the job.

Let me conclude with this thought. On one of the earliest days of the invasion, in the darkness, just before dawn, as russian bombs fell on Kyiv, President Zelenskyi stood outside the House with Chimeras and sent a simple, defined message to the world: "We are here!". Today, as the world asks: Will your allies waver, will our resolve weaken, will our belief in your success falter? My reply is the same: "We are here!".

And as a symbol of our unbreakable alliance, I bring you today the flag of the United Kingdom, signed by our country’s entire Cabinet, to stand here until the day of your victory and beyond, as a sign to the world that we are here and that we will always be with you.