Latest news with #UkrainianCossack
Powys County Times
07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Powys County Times
Royal Welsh Show 2025 main ring attractions announced
The Royal Welsh Show has announced the main ring attractions for 2025. The Royal Welsh Agricultural Society has announced the list of main ring attractions for the 2025 Royal Welsh Show, which will be held from July 21 to 24 at the showground in Llanelwedd, Builth Wells. The headline act for this year's event is the return of the Ukrainian Cossacks. The Cossacks are known for their daring displays of horsemanship. They will present a 10-minute showcase of traditional Cossack riding in the main ring. The Ukrainian Cossack stunt team, led by founder Oleh Yurchyshyn, has performed at more than 20 prestigious events across Europe and the Middle East. They will perform stunts including flipping beneath galloping horses, forming six-person human pyramids on horseback, and executing somersaults mid-charge. The team rides Ukrainian Warmblood horses, a breed known for its endurance and bravery. Many of the riders maintain the traditional 'oseledets' hairstyle, a topknot on a shaved head that symbolises their cultural heritage. Aled Rhys Jones, chief executive of the Royal Welsh Agricultural Society, said: "The 2025 Royal Welsh Show continues our tradition of bringing world-class entertainment alongside the very best of Welsh agriculture. "The Ukrainian Cossacks represent exactly the kind of spectacular, culturally rich performance our visitors have come to expect from the main ring. "Their appearance this year carries extra significance as a celebration of courage and resilience." The show will also feature the UK's number one motorcycle display team, Bolddog FMX, who will perform stunts and aerial acrobatics. Meirion Owen and his sheepdogs will demonstrate traditional sheepdog work, while the Regimental Band & Corps of Drums of The Royal Welsh will showcase Welsh musical heritage. The RAF College Band will perform on Tuesday, and the RAF Falcons Parachute Display Team will descend into the main ring on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. The British Army Drone Sports Association will demonstrate military drone operations on Monday and Wednesday. The show will also feature a heavy horse village, celebrating traditional working horses. Visitors can also look forward to a variety of other main ring entertainment throughout the show, including the Inter Hunt Team Relay, Parade of Hounds, and Mounted Games. Tickets for the event are available online at or by calling 01982 553683.
Yahoo
24-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Boris Johnson calls for 3pc defence spending
Boris Johnson has called for Britain to increase its defence spending to 3 per cent in order to help guarantee Europe's security against Russian aggression. The former prime minister was speaking to The Telegraph during a visit to Kyiv on Monday to mark the third anniversary of Russia's invasion. His trip comes ahead of Sir Keir Starmer travelling to Washington later this week to present Donald Trump with proposals that include Britain boosting its defence spending But Mr Johnson said existing plans to increase spending from 2.3 per cent to 2.5 per cent would still still mean Britain is tens of billions below requirements, and he urged it to be upped to 3 per cent by 2030. He said that a 3 per cent target would help convince Mr Trump that Europe was serious about sharing more of the region's defence spending burden, amid concerns that the new administration in the White House is not willing to come to the old Continent's defence. 'We should get to 3 per cent by 2030,' Mr Johnson said. '2.5 per cent is not enough.' The former prime minister made the comments in a wide-ranging interview in which he sought to play peacemaker between Washington and Kyiv over Mr Trump's recent comments that Ukraine provoked its war with Russia. Mr Johnson described the comments as an insult to Ukraine's war dead – and also said that Kyiv had a 'moral case' to build its own nuclear weapon if the West continued to let it down. The interview can be heard in full on the new edition of the Telegraph podcast Ukraine: The Latest, which will also be available in Ukrainian and Russian. Mr Johnson's backing of a 3 per cent defence spending target would add around £20 billion to the annual defence budget, and goes far beyond what Labour has currently envisaged. On Sunday, Bridget Phillipson, the Education Secretary, described even the existing 2.5 per cent target as 'ambitious'. Mr Johnson, however, said it could provide a boost for the UK economy if spent on domestic defence industries. 'We are world-beating in defence industries and drone technology. This can drive employment... across the country. We want to get some growth out of the UK – let's go for it, and it's in a great cause.' The former prime minister remains a hero in Ukraine for his outspoken support for Kyiv at the start of the invasion, when Britain supplied thousands of anti-tank missiles that helped stop Russian attempts to capture the capital. At least four streets are named after him, as is a burger and a croissant, while a Ukrainian Cossack society admitted him as an honorary member. He is also a close supporter of Mr Trump, however, declaring last year that a second Trump presidency would be helpful to Ukraine. While he still expresses confidence in Mr Trump, on Monday he was at pains to denounce the US leader's comments that Volodymyr Zelensky was a dictator who provoked the conflict. 'It's the most egregious piece of victim-blaming I've ever seen. To say that Ukraine started the war is nauseating,' he said. 'It's pure Kremlin propaganda, and it's offensive to the soldiers.' In an attempt to defuse the row, he insisted that the real aim of Trump's broadside was to jolt Europe into a proactive role in any peace deal. He said he backed plans for a British and French-led peacekeeping force in Ukraine, and that Kremlin objections to having Western troops there should be ignored as a point of principle. '(If) you put British boots on the ground in any capacity, a large European force on the ground in Ukraine, you are annihilating Putin's claims to control of Ukraine,' he said. He expressed disappointment that both Germany and Poland had so far ruled out contributing peacekeepers, speculating that it was because both countries had 'historic experiences of invading Ukraine' – Germany during the Nazi period, and Poland under the anti-Soviet forces of Marshal Józef Piłsudski. 'I think there's a bit of anxiety about that, but I think certainly Poland will be there in the end, as will other countries.' He also urged Sir Keir and other European leaders to stop dithering over whether to permanently confiscate some $300 billion of Russian central bank assets frozen in European clearing houses last year. EU officials have so far been reluctant to do so, fearing retaliatory measures against Western business assets in Russia. Mr Johnson said it would again show Washington that Europe was serious about resolving the Ukraine crisis, and that it was not a question of legality, but simply one of political will. 'The Prime Minister needs to tell the Treasury, even if they don't like it. But we did it with (Iraqi leader) Saddam Hussein. We should take these assets... and use them to help the Ukrainians, and help pay for continuing military engagement. 'Ministers have kept saying we should take those assets, but then their treasuries and finance ministries say: 'Oh no, we couldn't possibly do that.' But we're either serious or we aren't, and Trump can see that. He can see the fundamental lack of determination.' Asked if the realignment of Europe's security architecture might require a pan-European nuclear deterrent – currently only the UK and France possess atomic bombs – Mr Johnson said he opposed any further nuclear proliferation on the Continent. But he expressed sympathy with Mr Zelensky's recent comments that Ukraine should have a nuclear weapon if it was not allowed Nato membership. Under the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, Ukraine agreed to give up its Soviet-era nuclear arsenal in return for international security guarantees – which Kyiv points out Russia has flagrantly violated. 'Ukraine has an honest and reasonable case that they gave up their nuclear capabilities on the understanding that they would be protected. Those protections were not forthcoming,' Mr Johnson said. 'I don't like the idea of countries acquiring more nuclear weapons. But I can see Ukraine's moral case. However, they couldn't just do it illegally, and frankly I think they can win the war without it.' Mr Johnson also endorsed a proposed $500 billion deal that would allow Washington to access Ukraine's rare earth mineral deposits as compensation for America's wartime assistance. Mr Zelensky had earlier rejected it, saying the terms were exploitative, but reports on Monday said a revised deal was close to being signed. 'If Ukraine does this minerals deal with the US, you are plainly beginning a process of aligning Ukraine economically with the United States, not with the corrupt kleptocracy in Russia,' he said. He added that even if Washington pulled the plug on US funding for Ukraine altogether, many Ukrainian troops might opt to carry on fighting regardless. 'The fundamental fact is that Ukraine has chosen to be free, and Zelensky I think has been probably been politically strengthened if anything, by attacks on him and on his legitimacy.' Mr Johnson was speaking at the Yalta European Strategy forum, an international annual conference of leaders organised by the Ukrainian oligarch and philanthropist Victor Pinchuk. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
