The Ukrainian ambassador to the UK warned if his country falls to Vladimir Putin, “it will reshape the global order”.
Speaking at a fringe event at the Conservative Party conference on Tuesday, Valerii Zaluzhnyi called for Ukraine’s allies to come together and help the beleaguered country in its hour of need – for everyone’s sake.
“The stakes of this war go beyond Europe,” he said. “If Ukraine falls, it will reshape the global order.
“Whoever wins the war will be in the position to shape the future of the world.
“This is why we must be absolutely clear – Ukraine must win this war.”
The West is currently considering allowing Ukraine to use its long-range missiles to target sites within Russia, even though Moscow claims that could end up pulling the West into direct conflict with the Kremlin.
During the same event, Conservative MP and shadow foreign minister Alicia Kearns also called for the UK to up its support for Kyiv, saying: “Time is precious. We are still only giving Ukraine enough to survive, not to win, and that is a moral failure.”
She then criticised the new Labour government after Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy claimed support from the UK had declined after the general election.
Kearns said: “For our ally to come out and criticise us is an extraordinary thing to happen.”
Keir Starmer previously responded to Zelenskyy’s concerns about waning British support in August, as No.10 said the PM was “resolute” in his support for Ukraine, and that the UK had promised to send £3bn a year to help its ally.
Meanwhile, Tory MP George Freeman, a former science minister, noted at the conference that “there is no doubt about the diplomatic contempt for Putin’s criminal kleptocracy in the Kremlin,” across the “international space”.