Ukraine is a 'shield' against a full scale invasion of Europe warns a leading politician on frontline ahead of war's fourth anniversary

Tuesday marks the fourth anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Speaking to Chopper's Political Podcast, Mr Kim said: "From UK, you realise that we are a shield of Europe now, and we have the best army now, and we are defending the Europe because Russia will never stop.

"And we need... not only support, we need cooperation in our economy. We need the cooperation with our people.

"We need your experience because it is a common problem for now. It is the first time that rules of the whole world have been changed."

He said: "This is not right because there are lots of small countries, democratic countries with happy people.

"And someone can come to your house, any time now, because if Russia will capture the Ukraine, it will end, but it will be a situation that anybody could repeat."

Mr Kim - the region's governor since 2020 - said British troops, which could be deployed on the ground in Ukraine to keep the peace if a deal can be reached, would be able to learn from Ukrainian soldier's first hand experience of fighting Russians.

He said: "Your soldiers maybe will be learning from us how to operate in a modern war. So we need very close and deep cooperation in all spheres."

Mr Kim said that he and other leaders were planning for how to rebuild Ukraine when the war is over.

He said: "We wish to recover Ukraine, to live in peaceful Ukraine [under] a free sky, to recover Ukraine, to invest in our people.

"We want to have a highly technological country with good payments, and I think we deserve it.

"And we are planning to recover our country. We are inviting our investors already.

"So we are fighting with one hand, but with another hand we are preparing for recovering our country."