'We're lucky UK is our friend' says Ukrainian MP after Boris Johnson addresses Kyiv parliament

Boris Johnson 'evokes Winston Churchill' in speech to Ukrainian parliament: Romilly Weeks reports

Boris Johnson has received a standing ovation after giving a historic speech to Ukraine's parliament, with one Ukrainian MP saying she has never witnessed such an applause in the Verkhovna Rada.

Lesia Vasylenko, an MP for the liberal Holos party, said Ukraine is "certainly lucky" to have the UK as a friend, after Mr Johnson announced a new £300 million package to support their resistance against Russian invaders.

Downing Street said it will include electronic warfare equipment, a counter battery radar system, GPS jamming equipment and thousands of night vision devices, as Russia’s offensive in the Donbas region continues.

In a video posted by Ms Vasylenko, the prime minister said: "It is a big honour for me to address you at this crucial moment in history, and I salute the courage with which you are meeting today, and will continue to meet in spite of the barbaric onslaught on your freedoms."

The PM echoed Winston Churchill's famous World War II words when speaking via video link to MPs in Kyiv, lauding Ukraine's "finest hour", in a show of support and solidarity with president Volodymyr Zelenskyy after meeting him in the Ukrainian capital last month.

Mr Zelenskyy spoke after Mr Johnson, describing the UK and Ukraine as “brothers and sisters” as welcomed the additional support.

It is reportedly the first time Mr Zelensky has appeared in the parliament in person since the war began.

Mr Johson said: “When my country faced the threat of invasion during the Second World War, our Parliament, like yours, continued to meet throughout the conflict, and the British people showed such unity and resolve that we remember our time of greatest peril as our finest hour.

“This is Ukraine’s finest hour, an epic chapter in your national story that will be remembered and recounted for generations to come.

“Your children and grandchildren will say that Ukrainians taught the world that the brute force of an aggressor counts for nothing against the moral force of a people determined to be free.”

In 1940, following the fall of France, Mr Churchill sought to rally Britons to resist the Nazis – telling the country that it would be remembered as their “finest hour”.

When he addressed the UK Parliament in March, Mr Zelensky evoked another of Mr Churchill’s wartime addresses, declaring: “We will fight in the forests, in the fields, on the shores, in the streets.”

On additional military support, Mr Johnson told the parliament: "In the coming weeks, we in the UK will send you Brimstone anti-ship missiles and Stormer anti-aircraft systems.

"We are providing armoured vehicles to evacuate civilians from areas under attack and protect officials - what Volodymyr (Zelensky) mentioned to me in our most recent call - while they maintain critical infrastructure.

"I can announce today from the UK government a new package of support totalling £300 million, including radars to pinpoint the artillery bombarding your cities, heavy lift drones to supply your forces and thousands of night vision devices.

"We will carry on supplying Ukraine, alongside your other friends, with weapons, funding and humanitarian aid, until we have achieved our long-term goal, which must be so to fortify Ukraine that no-one will ever dare to attack you again."

Downing Street said it is also sending more than a dozen new specialised Toyota Land Cruisers to protect civilian officials in eastern Ukraine and to evacuate civilians from frontline areas, following a request from the Ukrainian government.

It comes as the UK's Ministry of Defence claims the modernisation of Russia's army has not translated into a decisive advantage over Ukraine.

Russia's military is now "significantly weaker", the MoD claims, as a result of its invasion of Ukraine - and recovery will be slowed by widespread sanctions.

It comes as a senior US official warned Russia was planning to annex large portions of eastern Ukraine and recognise the southern city of Kherson as an independent republic.

What you need to know - Listen to the latest episode

Michael Carpenter, the US ambassador to the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, said the suspected plan was “straight out of the Kremlin’s playbook”.

He said the US and other allies had information Moscow was planning “sham referenda” in the the separatist-held “people’s republics” of Donetsk and Luhansk in an attempt to add “a veneer of democratic or electoral legitimacy”.

“Such sham referenda, fabricated votes will not be considered legitimate, nor will any attempts to annex additional Ukrainian territory,” he said.