Ukraine Dispatch 10 | 'We Will Not Lose!' President Zelenskyy in His Address to the House of Commons

The House of Commons Chamber of the United Kingdom Parliament received the Address by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine at 5 pm GMT Tuesday 8 March 2022. Images are taken directly from the author’s smart screen and are produced courtesy of the BBC which itself gives superb and extraordinary coverage of the War in Ukraine. KTW

Ukraine Dispatches

Volume 1 2022

Chapter one

I

IN THE early 1960s I'd already learned the 'fighting on the beaches' speech by Winston Churchill to the British People and to the World in June 1940.

It is one of those central tenets that underpin seven decades.

II

From 24 February 2022, I found myself recalling it every time I watched President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's daily video briefings.

It was clear from the outset. Here was a leader that is Churchillian. I never joke when talking about Winston Churchill's wartime leadership. Why so?

III

Well, my parents and four grandparents quietly answered my questions; you know what little boys who like their soldiers, tanks, planes, ships and forts are like... My parents had both lost brothers in the Royal Air Force over Germany.

When I was around 22 and, by now, commissioned in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, I remember discussing all of this again with my mother.

Over the next 47 years, Mum's long term recall was as fresh in 2016 as it was in 1975.

We were talking about Mum's terror as a twelve-year-old at the possibility that Nazi paratroops might come down over Cheltenham. The Pathe News Reels at the Cinema had shown them jumping out over Holland, and what then befell the beautiful Port and City of Rotterdam. Her father, who had been a prisoner of war in the First World War replied with a ‘quiet smile' (I know Grandad's quiet smile well ~ it is as fresh today in memory as forty and more years ago):

“Oh. Now, don't you go worrying about that dear!
You just listen to Mr Churchill!!”

IV

In 2015, we were watching a history programme, when a newsreel came on with the famous speech. Suddenly, Mum sat bolt upright, then leaning forward, taut, started quietly saying the speech, studying the television screen intently and then, bearing in mind my Mum of 88 years had become Grandad’s twelve-year-old daughter again, as Churchill shouted out:

"We shall NEVER surrender!"

Well, I got it in stereo, because Mum shouted it out and punched the air with her tiny fist... then looked at me across the room.

“You see Ken?”

That's what it's all about.
You ‘NEVER surrender!'“

I say this. We both enjoyed the pot of tea that followed!

V

This is why I kept thinking through every day since 24 February, 'My God! The Ukrainian People are in exactly the same position.'

From the outset, one phrase underpinned the War in Ukraine and which moved me to write Ukraine Dispatch 5 on 27 February Day 4 (link below) of this horrendous war …

Cometh the Hour, Cometh the Man.

Chapter Two

I

HISTORY was made in President Zelenskyy's Address to the House of Commons, the Mother of Parliaments at 5 clock GMT yesterday, Tuesday, 8 March 2022.

For the first time, I sensed "in real time", what my parents and grandparents and uncles would have felt in 1940. And whilst the Blitz claimed between 40,000 - 43,000 lives and between 46,000 - 139,000 injured, I kept thinking, yes, but we were never actually invaded! And we had air supremacy!!

The peaceful, non-threatening Nation and People of Ukraine are invaded, blitzed and with no protection overhead, despite repeated requests. There are leaders, and then there are leaders. The B-Team and the A-Team in that order. France, Germany, Hungary, Turkey, Israel, and India to mention just six, for now, are all B-Team, or ‘benched.’

In Leadership, there are two types of leaders …

1.     I cannot do it, but I’ll get it done.

2.     Yes, sure I’ll do it. But makes no actual attempt to do it.

 II

I had no idea that President Zelenskyy’s speech would proceed along the road that it did. I was simply relieved that this very natural leader and wartime president was able to speak to all of our members of parliament across all parties. How good to see Mr Vadym Prystaiko, the Ukraine Ambassador to the United Kingdom also present, seated on the same level as the screen from where his President addressed the Chamber. These men are Team A leaders.

III

IN years to come, children in Britain, in their history lessons, when being asked to consider the speech by Winston Churchill from the same chamber in June 1940 shortly before it was bombed, will be doing so because teachers will be asking them to consider the Address by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to the British People at 5 pm on Tuesday, 8 March 2022, … and then, the teacher perhaps suggesting they might earn extra marks if they look up the events of 1940.

But the emphasis will be on 8 March 2022 - this 21st Century - and that declaration that rang out and addressed every nation free and unfree throughout the world …

We, the People of Ukraine,

We will not lose!

Thank you, Mr President, God Bless You, Sir, and your Family, and your Nation

Слава Україні
Slava Ukraini
"Glory to Ukraine!"

This speaks volumes … A Wartime Leader with his Nation and People in Kyiv …

Ukraine Dispatch 5 : Cometh the Hour, Cometh the Man

9 March 2022
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© Kenneth Thomas Webb 2022