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Royal welcome for Zelenskyy after White House meltdown
The Observer
|March 02, 2025
Starmer offers 'unwavering' support | EU leaders hold crisis talks in London
King Charles will hold an official audience at Sandringham with the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy today as the UK and EU demonstrate their "unwavering" support after his humiliation at the hands of Donald Trump and JD Vance in the White House.
Keir Starmer will also host European heads of government and the leaders of Canada and Turkey at a special defence summit aimed at presenting a united front on the Ukraine crisis.
On arrival in Downing Street for a meeting with Starmer last night, just 24 hours after Trump and his vice-president JD Vance subjected him to a 10-minute tirade in the Oval Office, Zelenskyy said he was "very happy" that the king had agreed to the meeting.
The offer of a royal audience was seen at Westminster as a deliberate move to give the Ukrainian president equal treatment to Trump, who was presented during his meeting at the White House on Wednesday by • Starmer with an invitation to a second state visit to the UK, including a meeting with King Charles.
Last night there were reports that the UK would show further solidarity by unlocking billions of pounds of frozen Russian assets to Ukraine. The Sunday Times claimed Rachel Reeves would divert money earmarked for green investment in the UK to the defence industry. It would be the first time that money from frozen Russian assets would contribute towards military spending.
This story is from the March 02, 2025 edition of The Observer.
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