🇺🇦🇷🇺 Ukraine just hit Russia's Tuapse oil refinery on the Black Sea for the third time in less than two weeks.
Putin went on record saying drone strikes on civilian infrastructure are "becoming more frequent" and warned of serious environmental consequences.
That's a telling admission.
Ukraine's military confirmed this is a deliberate campaign to drain Russian oil revenue and starve the war machine of funding.
The irony: Russia calls it an attack on civilians. Ukraine calls it economics. The frequency of these strikes suggests Kyiv is winning that argument on the ground.
Source: Reuters
Drawing on these values and traditions, time and again, our two countries have always found ways to come together. And by Jove, Mr. Speaker, when we have found that way to agree, what great change is brought about – not just for the benefit of our peoples, but of all peoples.
This, I believe, is the special ingredient in our relationship. As President Trump himself observed during his State Visit to Britain last Autumn, “The bond of kinship and identity between America and the United Kingdom is priceless and eternal. It is irreplaceable and unbreakable.”
This is by no means my first visit to Washington, D.C. – the capital of this great Republic. It is in fact my twentieth visit to the United States, and my first as King and Head of the Commonwealth. This is a city which symbolises a period in our shared history, or what Charles Dickens might have called “A Tale of Two Georges”: the first President, George Washington, and my five-times Great Grandfather, King George III. King George never set foot in America and, please rest assured, I am not here as part of some cunning rearguard action!
The Founding Fathers were bold and imaginative rebels with a cause. Two hundred and fifty years ago – or, as we say in the United Kingdom, just the other day – they declared Independence. By balancing contending forces and drawing strength in diversity, they united thirteen disparate colonies to forge a Nation on the revolutionary idea of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. They carried with them, and carried forward, the great inheritance of the British Enlightenment – as well as the ideals which had an even deeper history in English Common Law and Magna Carta.
These roots run deep, and they are still vital. Our Declaration of Rights of 1689 was not only the foundation of our constitutional Monarchy, but also provided the source of so many of the principles reiterated – often verbatim – in the American Bill of Rights of 1791. And those roots go even further back in our history: the U.S. Supreme Court Historical Society has calculated that Magna Carta is cited in at least 160 Supreme Court cases since 1789, not least as the foundation of the principle that executive power is subject to checks and balances. This is the reason why there stands a stone, by the River Thames at Runnymede where Magna Carta was signed in the year 1215. This stone records that an acre of that ancient and historic site was given to the U.S.A. by the people of the United Kingdom, to symbolise our shared resolve in support of liberty, and in memory of President John F. Kennedy.
Distinguished members of the 119th Congress, it is here in these very halls that this spirit of liberty and the promise of America’s Founders is present in every session and every vote cast. Not by the will of one, but by the deliberation of many, representing the living mosaic of the United States. In both of our countries, it is the very fact of our vibrant, diverse and free societies that gives us our collective strength, including to support victims of some of the ills that, so tragically, exist in both our societies today.
And, Mr Speaker, for many here – and for myself – the Christian faith is a firm anchor and daily inspiration that guides us not only personally, but together as members of our community. Having devoted a large part of my life to interfaith relationships and greater understanding, it is that faith in the triumph of light over darkness which I have found confirmed countless times. Through it I am inspired by the profound respect that develops as people of different faiths grow in their understanding of each other. It is why it is my hope – my prayer – that, in these turbulent times, working together and with our international partners, we can stem the beating of ploughshares into swords.
I am mindful that we are still in the season of Easter, the season that most strengthens my hope. It is why I believe, with all my heart, that the essence of our two Nations