President Zelenskyy says he had awarded the US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi with the Order of Princess Olga “for her significant personal contribution to strengthening our cooperation and sincere participation in the defence of freedom”.

“Mrs Pelosi and I had four hours of very substantive negotiations, as they say, multifaceted,” the president said in his address.

“In particular, on defence supplies, macro-financial assistance, sanctions policy, political cooperation with the United States.

“I thanked her for the revival of the historic Lend-Lease program, which once helped protect freedom in Europe and can certainly do so a second time.

“We discussed specific areas; how Lend-Lease can work to strengthen our state as much as possible and help in the struggle for freedom.

“I also thanked her for the preparation of a large package of aid to Ukraine worth $33 billion.”

“We discussed how we can strengthen sanctions on Russia in a way that most effectively encourages it to end the war and limits Russia’s ability to circumvent existing and future sanctions.”

“I felt the support of our initiatives,” he added.