‘We want to see him in Ukraine’: Zelenskyy hopes to invite King Charles on state visit

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has revealed that he plans to invite King Charles on a state visit to Ukraine as early as this year, which would make him the most senior royal to travel to Kyiv since Russia’s full-scale invasion.

The Ukrainian president said he had a close relationship with the king, whom he has met on numerous occasions, including when he gave a public show of support after Zelenskyy’s explosive visit to the White House last year.

In an interview with the Guardian, Zelenskyy said: “Today I want to invite him [the king] very much. I don’t know from the point of security. Yes, of course, we want to see him in Ukraine very much. I don’t know how it will be this year, if it’s possible, but of course we want to see him.”

Zelenskyy said Charles had continued to support Ukraine, but refused to divulge exactly how. “It’s up to his majesty to answer on such questions,” he said.

But he added: “We have a very good relationship, you know. Today, in the morning, when I spoke by phone with my wife, with all respect to Keir [Starmer], but my wife said best regards to his majesty first, of course, and then to the prime minister, of course. So of course, we, and Ukraine, love his majesty.”

Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh, and Princess Anne are the only working members of the royal family to have visited Ukraine since 2022.

However, Prince Harry has been on three separate occasions, including last September, when he said he wanted to do “everything possible” to help the recovery of thousands of military personnel in the war.

Last March, the king invited Zelenskyy to his Norfolk estate, Sandringham, as the UK demonstrated its “unwavering” ­support after the Ukrainian leader’s humiliation at the hands of Donald Trump and JD Vance in the White House. The two heads of state first met in 2023 at Buckingham Palace.