Just 760 visas have been granted for Ukrainians to come to the UK so far, Cabinet minister Grant Shapps said. The Transport Secretary defended the UK’s record on providing an escape route for Ukrainians and insisted that the country’s president Volodymyr Zelensky did not want his countrymen travelling too far from their homeland.
More than two million people have fled the Ukraine in less than two weeks after Russia started its invasion. Mr Shapps told Sky News that 760 visas had been granted, with 22,000 applications “on their way through”. He said: “No country has given more humanitarian aid to Ukraine than the UK, in the world. We have given £400million, in addition the British people have been incredibly generous as well.
“Geographically we are, of course, spaced further to the West and President Zelensky and the Ukrainian government have told me that they do not want people to move far away, if at all possible, from the country because they want people to be able to come back. We are really leaning into this, at the same time respecting Ukraine’s wishes, the government’s wishes, not to pull people a long way away from Ukraine.”
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