This weekend marks perhaps the most turbulent 48 hours that Ukraine’s President Zelensky has ever experienced – and, given the events of the past three years, that is saying an awful lot. After his already notorious reception in Washington at the White House in Friday, and rather more emollient greeting by Keir Starmer in Britain yesterday, he has now visited Sandringham to see King Charles after attending a summit of European leaders at Lancaster House. Doubtless he is running on a mixture of adrenaline and righteous anger at his enemies – whether those of long standing or more recently acquired – but he is almost certainly in need of reassurance that his allies will be steadfast, whatever the circumstances.
Zelensky’s visit to Sandringham was a clear mark of both royal and personal favour
While this has already been offered by Starmer and the other European premiers in London today, the meeting with the King was rather different. The two first encountered one another at Buckingham Palace in February 2023. Zelensky described the occasion as a ‘truly special moment for me, for our country’, even if – forever the former comedian – he could not resist quipping ‘in Ukraine today, every air force pilot is a king’. This was an allusion to Charles’s often-forgotten brief time serving in the RAF, before he transferred to the Royal Navy.
The two also met briefly at a world leaders’ summit at Blenheim in 2024. The King has been impressed by the Ukrainian president, and last year spoke of ‘the determination and strength of the Ukrainian people’, praising their ‘true valour in the face of indescribable aggression’.
Today’s teatime meeting between Charles and Zelensky, which took place in the saloon at Sandringham House, comes at a time of considerable diplomatic tension. Earlier this week, Starmer was praised for apparently handling Trump with kid gloves, not least his offering an unprecedented state visit to the US President, complete with a visit to see the King at his Scottish residence of Balmoral. Under Queen Elizabeth II, this was an honour reserved solely for her own favourite American, Dwight Eisenhower. Charles is more relaxed about Balmoral, viewing Highgrove as his own personal home instead.
Zelensky’s visit to Sandringham, though, coming before Trump’s state visit to Britain either later this year or in 2026, was a clear mark of both royal and personal favour. Whatever Starmer’s involvement in the arrangements, it is obvious from the photographs released that there is considerable mutual respect between the King and the Ukrainian President.
As with the King’s weekly audience with the Prime Minister, there will be no transcript or press briefing released of the conversation, although undoubtedly there will be informal briefing as to the overall substance of their chat. The smiles on both their faces seem perfectly genuine, and it will be fascinating to see whether the King has offered any personal opinion – however diplomatically couched – about Friday’s contretemps in Washington.
Nevertheless, whatever happens, today’s events are a reminder that Charles, for all his apparent neutrality on political issues, has stepped into sensitive international matters in a determinedly partisan way in a fashion that his mother never did. Events over the coming weeks and months will reveal whether this was a masterstroke or a grave mistake.
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