Volodymyr Zelensky has said that “small mistakes can break big friendship” following the decision by Reform UK councils to take down Ukrainian flags from outside town halls.
Some Reform-run councils have lowered the Ukrainian flag from their civic buildings which were hoisted in response to Russia’s 2022 invasion, in favour of flying only local flags and the Union flag.
Ukraine’s president expressed his hope that they would change their course in an interview with the Guardian newspaper which took place in London after he met with Sir Keir Starmer, and the political leaders of France and Germany, Emmanuel Macron and Friedrich Merz.
“I hope they will put it back”, Mr Zelensky told the newspaper.
He added: “I don’t want to be involved in any political things, but you know, the world is so sensitive today. Sometimes little, small mistakes can break big friendship or huge contacts.”
The Ukrainian leader then suggested that “people have to not make mistakes”, before adding: “OK, so you did it, please let’s come back to the table, let’s speak, let’s understand each other.”
Elsewhere in the Guardian interview, Mr Zelensky stressed how much his country and Britain need one another in Europe’s standoff against Russia.
“British people helped us from the very beginning of this war, it’s true. It’s because of security, not only values… But it’s about security in Europe. It’s in the interests of the UK,” he told the Guardian.
Mr Zelensky also revealed that he plans to invite the King for a state visit to Ukraine as early as this year, after Charles’s show of support for him after US President Donald Trump’s blistering row with the Ukrainian leader in the Oval Office a year ago.
The King and Mr Zelensky met for a private audience on Monday.
In an interview with Sky News, Mr Zelensky earlier revealed that Roman Abramovich has acted as a go-between for Kyiv and Moscow on plans for peace talks.
He told the broadcaster the former owner of Premier League football club Chelsea had met him in Kyiv with a message from Russia and offered to bring a reply directly to Vladimir Putin.
Mr Zelensky said Mr Abramovich “wanted to give me the message that they (Russia) are ready to, that they want to understand what we are ready to do”, and had offered to take a reply “and give it to Putin”.
He added: “I said the question is not about us. You are fighting against us on our territory.
“And I said to him about Donbas, it was the key message, I said we will not leave and we will not go out from our territory.
“No, we will not give you a victory (in) such (a) way, and you will not get it.”
Mr Zelensky said he told Mr Abramovich to tell the Russian president he was willing to meet “any time from tomorrow” in any location other than Russia or Belarus, and either bilaterally or with Mr Trump and European leaders.
He did not say when the meeting took place, but the Financial Times reported the pair had met in late May this year.
Mr Abramovich was sanctioned by the UK shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 over his connections to Mr Putin.
He has previously been involved in negotiations with Moscow and reportedly played a role in arranging a prisoner swap in 2022 that secured the release of five British men captured while fighting for Ukraine.
In a joint statement on Sunday night, Sir Keir, Mr Macron and Mr Merz called on the Russian president to agree “an immediate and complete ceasefire” and condemned Russia’s “large-scale missile and drone attacks” on Ukrainian cities.
On the same day, a Russian drone strike killed three people waiting at a bus stop in south-eastern Ukraine, while a separate attack damaged a storage centre for spent nuclear fuel nine miles from the Chernobyl power plant.
Officials said radiation remains within safe levels.
