Latest updates: No 10 has not ruled out lifting the government’s moratorium on fracking, saying ‘all options’ would be consideredUK plans to send anti-aircraft weapons to Ukraine, says Ben WallaceUK seizes private jet with suspected links to RussiaUkrainian ambassador calls on UK to simplify process for refugeesIt is illegal to join fight in Ukraine, Grant Shapps tells UK troopsRussia-Ukraine war: latest updatesVadym Prystaiko, the Ukrainian ambassador to the UK, did not have long at the Commons home affairs committee this morning. The chair, Dame Diana Johnson, explained that he had to leave by about 10.30am, and no one challenged the idea that he might have more pressing engagements. But he had a lot to say in his short stint before them. Here are the main points.I understand how sensitive it is for your society, especially after the immigration crisis, refugee crisis with Syrians, which we believe was manufactured by Russia pushing out these people from Syria, flooding with immigration, wave after wave, to Europe. [A visa waiver] would definitely resolve all the issues, but how reasonable, how justified it is with your own system, that’s frankly for you to decide. We will be happy if all the barriers are dropped for some period of time when we can get maximum [numbers] of people, then we will deal with that.I guess that people will unite with their families, and if you have 50-60,000 of them, I would expect 100,000 – at least – to come here to their relatives, some of them just members of families of your citizens who have no Ukrainian blood but for different reasons they have connections … which we are not aware of.If you can vote for some temporary releasing of us from these rules, to allow people to get here, we will take care of [them]. I don’t expect many of them to come.To process visas, it was always bureaucratic hassles. I have to tell you that, even when I was coming here as ambassador, I got my visa on time. Although I was already approved by your government, my wife didn’t have it.There are very kind people with good intentions who are sending kids’ bicycles and expecting us to send them all the way to Kyiv, to Ukraine right now, which is not reasonable to do (and) resource-wise, it is not even possible. Continue reading…
Latest updates: No 10 has not ruled out lifting the government’s moratorium on fracking, saying ‘all options’ would be considered
- UK plans to send anti-aircraft weapons to Ukraine, says Ben Wallace
- UK seizes private jet with suspected links to Russia
- Ukrainian ambassador calls on UK to simplify process for refugees
- It is illegal to join fight in Ukraine, Grant Shapps tells UK troops
- Russia-Ukraine war: latest updates
Vadym Prystaiko, the Ukrainian ambassador to the UK, did not have long at the Commons home affairs committee this morning. The chair, Dame Diana Johnson, explained that he had to leave by about 10.30am, and no one challenged the idea that he might have more pressing engagements. But he had a lot to say in his short stint before them. Here are the main points.
I understand how sensitive it is for your society, especially after the immigration crisis, refugee crisis with Syrians, which we believe was manufactured by Russia pushing out these people from Syria, flooding with immigration, wave after wave, to Europe.
[A visa waiver] would definitely resolve all the issues, but how reasonable, how justified it is with your own system, that’s frankly for you to decide. We will be happy if all the barriers are dropped for some period of time when we can get maximum [numbers] of people, then we will deal with that.
I guess that people will unite with their families, and if you have 50-60,000 of them, I would expect 100,000 – at least – to come here to their relatives, some of them just members of families of your citizens who have no Ukrainian blood but for different reasons they have connections … which we are not aware of.
If you can vote for some temporary releasing of us from these rules, to allow people to get here, we will take care of [them]. I don’t expect many of them to come.
To process visas, it was always bureaucratic hassles. I have to tell you that, even when I was coming here as ambassador, I got my visa on time. Although I was already approved by your government, my wife didn’t have it.
There are very kind people with good intentions who are sending kids’ bicycles and expecting us to send them all the way to Kyiv, to Ukraine right now, which is not reasonable to do (and) resource-wise, it is not even possible.