Zelensky speech: MPs rise as one in show of solidarity with Ukraine

MPs crammed into every corner. Members of the House of Lords packed the public galleries high in the chamber. Parliamentary staff huddled close to peer through the stone arches, almost in the roof, to watch.

After a few minutes of chatter, MPs fiddling with their headsets to ensure they would be able to hear the translation of the speech, there was hush.

Then alone at his desk, only a Ukrainian flag for company, President Volodymyr Zelensky appeared on screens to speak to MPs and, of course, to the country.

Ukraine's leader told of his country's pain as each day, a war "we did not start" progressed. Bombs falling on schools. Churches destroyed. Children's hospitals attacked. Food and water running low in some parts.

He thanked the UK for its support, urging the government to tighten sanctions still further, to protect Ukraine's skies, even though enforcing a no-fly zone is a step - a risk - that the UK and its allies just aren't willing to take yet.

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Yet the message that brought tears to some MPs' eyes was Mr Zelensky's utter defiance.

He chose his words carefully, addressing what he described as a country with a "big history". He compared the stand that Ukraine is taking against Vladimir Putin to that which the UK took against Germany in the Second World War.

He said: "Just in the same way you didn't want to lose your country when Nazis started to fight your country, you had to fight."

A student of British history perhaps, a savvy media operator, or both, Mr Zelensky evoked Winston Churchill's most famous speech of defiance, in which he promising to fight "on the beaches", saying: "We'll fight in the forests, on the shores, in the streets."

He even posed a question from Shakespeare: "To be or not to be?"

Ukraine, he said, had decided "to be free".

His words visibly affected many MPs, some with glistening eyes, some nodding fervently along.

The speech was poignant, just by being delivered in this place. MPs all know when they go through the entrance to the Commons they are walking through the arch rebuilt from scarred stone damaged by World War Two bombs.

MPs also know how profound today's challenge to European security could be.

At the end of the speech, MPs and Lords in the galleries stood again, to applaud.

The president touched his palm to his chest to acknowledge their heartfelt support, then slumped down for a moment in his seat.

For just a second, he looked just a young man in a khaki T-shirt, overwhelmed to find himself in this position, watching the democratic representatives of a country far away saluting him through a computer screen, while his country's democracy, and his own life, are in such danger.

Then his composure snapped back. Mr Zelensky raised his fist in defiance, stood up, and left the desk.

It was the first time any foreign leader has addressed the House of Commons directly.

Everyone watching will remember it. Everyone watching will hope that one day Mr Zelensky might have the chance to speak here in real life.