‘With you until the end’: Defence secretary Ben Wallace’s dramatic pledge to Ukraine after first lady’s plea
Exclusive: Assurance over UK support after Olena Zelenska said Russian victory would be worst-case scenario for humanity
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Your support makes all the difference.The UK’s support for Ukraine is tireless, the defence secretary has pledged, after Ukraine’s first lady issued an emotional plea for the world not to lose interest in the fight against Russia.
Britain will back Ukraine “every way we can” until the war is over, Ben Wallace said.
His comments follow a heartfelt call from Olena Zelenska, in an exclusive interview with Independent TV, to other nations, in which she said: “Please don’t get fatigued, because we as Ukrainians have no right to get tired.”
Speaking from the presidential palace in Kyiv, she warned that Russian victory was “the worst-case scenario for all humanity”, as it would mean “global deterrents aren’t working … that anyone with power, strength and sufficient financial capacity can do whatever they want.”
In response, Mr Wallace promised the UK would support Ukraine “to the end”.
He told The Independent: “No one in Britain is showing any signs of fatigue in supporting Ukraine, because it is the right thing to do.
"We are with them. And we will continue to be [with them], as I have often said publicly, to the end.”
Mr Wallace, who has personally met Ms Zelenska on a number of occasions, added: “And we will continue to support them in every way we can, both with gifting finance and advice, as well as partnership.”
In the more than 500 days since Russia’s invasion, untold numbers of Ukraine’s citizens have died, while others have been subject to abduction, rape and torture.
Ms Zelenska, a comedy screenwriter, advised her husband not to run for president four years ago.
But in the wake of the invasion last February she gave up her job, to help rally global backing for Ukraine’s fight against Russia.
In the wide-ranging interview, she said that her country was defending “not only its interests, not only its life. We are trying to maintain the whole democratic balance in the world.”
She also talked about her concerns for her family. She and her husband are forced to live apart for security reasons – meaning the president rarely gets to see their children.
“I want to be together again,” she said. “We really hope that somehow all this will change and we will be able to live a more or less normal family life.”
Mr Wallace was criticised last month after he cautioned that “whether we like it or not, people want to see gratitude” from the Ukrainians for the support they have received during the war.
But he said his comments had been “misreported”. His message had been that “you also have to engage with the people who are not so supportive”, such as some members of the US Congress, he said.
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