Speaking via video link to the Verkhovna Rada, the Prime Minister echoed the words of Winston Churchill as he sets out a new £300million package of support for the Ukrainian military.
Responding to his speech, Ukrainian MP Lesia Vasylenko tweeted: “Boris Johnson addressing Ukrainian parliament today.
“I have never seen this many standing ovations for a single speech.
“Ukraine is certainly lucky to have a friend like the UK.”
He said: “When my country faced the threat of invasion during the Second World War, our Parliament, like yours, continued to meet throughout the conflict, and the British people showed such unity and resolve that we remember our time of greatest peril as our finest hour.
“This is Ukraine’s finest hour, an epic chapter in your national story that will be remembered and recounted for generations to come.
“Your children and grandchildren will say that Ukrainians taught the world that the brute force of an aggressor counts for nothing against the moral force of a people determined to be free.”
When he addressed the UK Parliament in March, Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy evoked another of Mr Churchill’s wartime addresses, declaring: “We will fight in the forests, in the fields, on the shores, in the streets.”
The latest military support package comes after ministers updated Parliament last week on plans to send sophisticated long-range Brimstone missiles and Stormer air defence vehicles.
In addition, the UK is to supply heavy lift aerial drones to provide logistical support to Ukrainian forces which have become isolated.
Downing Street said it is also sending more than a dozen new specialised Toyota Land Cruisers to protect civilian officials in eastern Ukraine and to evacuate civilians from frontline areas, following a request from the Ukrainian government.
Boris Johnson made the speech today
PA/Reuters
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy attends a meeting with Prime Minister Boris Johnson at the Munich Security Conference in February
Matt Dunham
