LONDON (Parliament Politics Magazine) – The PM has announced that people who have settled in the UK would be permitted to bring their Ukrainian closest family members with them.
Boris Johnson stated that the United Kingdom would not “turn its back on Ukraine in its hour of need.”
He told a congregation in a Ukrainian church that he had never witnessed “such a clear divide between good and evil” as the crisis in Ukraine.
Later, he announced an additional £40 million in humanitarian help for the country.
In the midst of the escalating Russian invasion, the government is facing mounting pressure to relax visa requirements for Ukrainians seeking asylum in the UK.
More information on the new Ukrainian visa policy will be released on Monday afternoon according to UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace.
On Sunday evening, Home Office guidance was updated for British nationals living in Ukraine who wish to bring their Ukrainian family to the UK.
Family members are eligible to apply for a free family migration visa. The processing centre located in Kyiv is closed, but the one in Lviv, in western Ukraine, is operational, and anyone from adjacent nations can apply.
A civil partner or a spouse, an unmarried partner of at least two years, a parent or their child under the age of 18, or adult relatives who are carers are all eligible to apply for these visas.
Member states of the European Union have backed proposals to take in all Ukrainian refugees for up to three years despite the fact that there is a requirement for them to apply for refuge.
The change in UK policy, according to Downing Street, will “help many thousands of people who are currently making urgent decisions about their future.”
“We want to be as generous as we possibly can,” Mr Johnson told the reporters. “Certainly, we want individuals who have family in Ukraine to be able to bring them over as quickly as possible.”
“We want to make sure that anyone fleeing calamity, violence, and persecution in Ukraine may find their way here.”
Separately, he made an address to a Ukrainian congregation at the Cathedral of the Holy Family in London, promising them that the UK would do “all it can to support militarily, diplomatically, politically and diplomatically.”
He described Ukraine’s people as living through “the darkest periods in modern memory,” calling Russia’s incursion a “barbaric and unprovoked attack.”
Mr Johnson told the Catholic cathedral congregation that Ukrainians were both metaphorically and literally neighbours with the UK, with hundreds of thousands having migrated to live and work in the UK over the decades.
He said he wanted to emphasise that there was no enmity in his heart against the people of Russia, none whatever.
He added that his heart bled for the Russian parents who were already losing their children in this heinous and appalling conflict, just as it ached for the Ukrainian civilians and people.
He went on to say that there was “no plausible excuse” for the leadership of Russia to walk the “path of violence.”
Image via Reuters
