"Ukraine's struggle is Europe's struggle" President Zelensky tells European Parliament

In his speech to the European parliament President Zelensky stressed that Europe and Ukraine shared a common history and culture and that Ukraine’s fight was also Europe’s fight adding that Russia posed the biggest threat to them both.

Speaking mostly in Ukrainian the Ukrainian leader stressed the values his country shares with Europe as well as a common way of life.  He noted that Russia wished to attack these values and his country would not allow Russian efforts to be victorious: “The total war that Russia has unleashed isn’t only about territory, but about a dictator, who with a tremendous number of weapons, many dating from the Soviet era or from Iran, is destroying our values.  If we are united Europe will remain free.”

The Ukrainian president received a standing ovation from MEPs.

The details of the president’s trip are shrouded in secrecy due to security concerns. Mr Zelensky will also meet with the 27 EU heads of state and government.

Laura Demullier of the Belgian crisis centre says the visit was “in the air” but was only confirmed 24 hours ago: “We knew he might come but we didn’t know when.  We had 24 hours in which to introduce all security measures.  Luckily, we can make these changes quickly and have the means to ensure security”.

The National crisis centre is coordinating security for the summit and brings all partners, federal police, the coordination body for threat analysis OCAD and delegation security outfits together.