President Volodymyr Zelensky is set to visit the UK on Tuesday, before traveling on to Spain on Wednesday, Britain’s Defense Minister John Healey said on Monday.
Zelensky’s fourth visit to Spain will see him meet with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez in Madrid as part of ongoing bilateral relations between the two countries. It was announced last week.
“Our total determination to stand with Ukraine remains steadfast, and we will welcome President Zelensky to this country tomorrow,” Healey told the UK parliament.
“We face two conflicts on two continents, supported by an axis of aggression with similar tactics and similar technologies,” he added, presumably in reference to the ongoing US-Israeli war in Iran.
Both Spain and the UK have drawn US President Donald Trump’s ire in recent weeks for their lacklustre response to his demand that they further involve themselves in that war.
Although the UK agreed to allow the US to use its bases in the Middle East for “defensive” strikes, Trump said on March 3 that he was “not happy” that it had taken multiple days to secure this agreement.
“This is not Winston Churchill that we’re dealing with,” he said, apparently making an unfavorable comparison between the famous wartime leader and current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Spain, which has refused to allow the US access to its bases in the region, drew an even stronger response – also on March 3, Trump said that the US would cut off all trade and didn’t “want anything to do with” Spain.
Also on Monday, Trump claimed that the future of NATO is hanging in the balance as he asked its members to help the US take control of the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway through which roughly a fifth of the world’s oil and gas shipments transits.
“We’ve been very sweet. We didn’t have to help them with Ukraine. Ukraine is thousands of miles away from us… But we helped them. Now we’ll see if they help us.”
The UK has already rejected Trump’s request to deploy British warships to the Strait of Hormuz.