Ukrainian President Zelensky says he is due to meet Rishi Sunak today for 'substantive negotiations'

Volodymyr Zelensky has jetted in to the UK to meet his ‘friend’ Rishi Sunak ahead of a ‘crucial’ week in the struggle against Russia.

The Ukrainian President has arrived for a surprise visit that will see him hold ‘substantive negotiations’ with the PM at his Chequers country residence.

Mr Zelensky was in Paris for talks with Emmanuel Macron yesterday following a summit with EU commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, Poland’s PM Mateusz Morawiecki and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Aachen over the weekend.

Mr Sunak is set to push for more support for Kyiv when he attends the G7 gathering in Japan and Council of Europe in Reykjavik later this week.

The premier vowed to send a ‘message of solidarity’ as Ukraine tries to kick out Vladimir Putin’s invading forces, saying it is in ‘all our interests’ that Mr Zelensky succeeds.    

The discussions today come after the UK became the first country to provide long-range precision missiles to Ukraine.

The Storm Shadow cruise missiles, accurate to beyond 150 miles, will play a key role in the country’s much anticipated counter-offensive against Russian occupiers.

The UK also confirmed today that it will supply hundreds of air defence missiles and new long-range attack drones with a range of over 125 miles. 

Mr Zelensky last came to the UK in February, when he addressed both Houses of Parliament in Westminster Hall.

He will be the first world leader hosted by Mr Sunak at Chequers. 

Mr Zelensky tweeted: ‘Today – London. The UK is a leader when it comes to expanding our capabilities on the ground and in the air.

‘This cooperation will continue today. I will meet my friend Rishi. We will conduct substantive negotiations face-to-face and in delegations.’

Mr Sunak said the UK will be ‘sustaining our support’ for Ukraine.

The PM said: ‘This is a crucial moment in Ukraine’s resistance to a terrible war of aggression they did not choose or provoke.

‘They need the sustained support of the international community to defend against the barrage of unrelenting and indiscriminate attacks that have been their daily reality for over a year.

‘We must not let them down.

‘The frontlines of Putin’s war of aggression may be in Ukraine but the fault lines stretch all over the world. It is in all our interest to ensure Ukraine succeeds and (Vladimir) Putin’s barbarism is not rewarded.

‘That is why the UK is sustaining our support to Ukraine – from tanks to training, ammunition to armoured vehicles. And this message of solidarity will ring loud in all my meetings with fellow world leaders in the days ahead.’