During a visit to Great Britain, First Lady of Ukraine Olena Zelenska met with King Charles III.
Together they visited the Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral in London, on the territory of which the Ukrainian Welcome Centre has been operating since August 2022 - a center of assistance to Ukrainian citizens who temporarily left their homeland due to Russian aggression, founded together with the Union of Ukrainians.
"It is not the first time that His Majesty finds time and kind words to support the forced migrants from Ukraine: recently he visited them in Scotland, even earlier - in Romania. During each meeting, I feel how British support is getting stronger, and together with it, the friendship between our countries," the President's wife said.
At the Ukrainian Welcome Centre, Olena Zelenska and Charles III talked with representatives of the Ukrainian community and temporary migrants, as well as with British families who have hosted Ukrainians. The First Lady emphasized that during all trips she meets compatriots who were forced to leave their homeland due to military aggression, learns about the conditions of their stay and the needs they have in a new country.
"Since Russia switched to energy terror tactics, we understand that this winter will be the hardest in all the years of independence. So I am grateful for the fact that at least part of Ukrainians, especially the elderly and children, are able to wait out the cold season without risking being in blackout conditions," she said.
Olena Zelenska also visited the London School of Economics and met with students of several local universities - young people from Great Britain, France, other countries, as well as Ukrainian students who are pursuing higher education in London.
During the meeting, she spoke about Ukraine's struggle against Russian invaders and the ordeals that its citizens are going through. She emphasized that Ukrainian students now have to fight for the right to knowledge every day, study in bomb shelters and in conditions of power outages due to Russian shelling of critical infrastructure.
"Our life in five, ten, twenty years depends on the Ukrainian, British and global youth. It will determine which way our countries will go, whether there will be peace or chaos around. Whether they will violate human rights, as Russia is doing now, or, on the contrary, will it be possible to put any aggressor in its place. We in Ukraine know how difficult it is to live in a history textbook. And at the same time, it is an opportunity to inscribe humanity, support and value of human life there," the First Lady emphasized during her speech.
