VLADIMIR PUTIN, Russia’s president, deserves the highest medal of Ukraine. He has done more for its European integration in the past few months than any Ukrainian politician has over the past 20 years. He has stopped the country’s directionless drift, consolidated its elite, given it an impetus westward and mobilised European politicians. Never before has Ukraine been so close to signing an association and free-trade agreement with the European Union, a step towards EU membership.
Nestled amid the green Crimean hills, lapped by the Black Sea’s languid waves, Yalta’s battle-scarred appearance in February 1945 prompted Winston Churchill to call it “the Riviera of Hades.” It still has the faint aura of a seaside resort for secret policemen.
Member of Parliament; Member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, House of Commons of the UK, YES Special meeting in Kyiv on February 24th, 2024 “Two Years - Stay in the Fight”
«There are massive strategic issues facing Ukraine – and the most critical is the supply of weapons. The most important relationship for Ukraine is with international governments, but you also need to communicate to the people in those countries what you lack.»