Ukraine conflict: Settled Ukrainians relatives able to come to UKon February 27, 2022 at 9:08 pm

People who are settled in the UK will be able to bring their Ukrainian immediate family members to join them, the prime minister has announced.

Boris Johnson said the UK would not “turn our backs in Ukraine’s hour of need”.

Speaking to a Ukrainian cathedral congregation, he said he had never seen “so clear a distinction between good and evil” as the conflict in Ukraine.

He later announced a further £40m of humanitarian aid for the country.

The government has been facing growing calls to waive visa rules for Ukrainians seeking sanctuary in the UK amid the ongoing Russian invasion.

Before the latest announcement, only those Ukrainians who were deemed to be “dependants” of those already in the UK were being guaranteed entry.

Downing Street said the change would “benefit many thousands of people who at this moment are making desperate choices about their future”.

In his announcement, Mr Johnson said: “We want to be as generous as we possibly can, and certainly we want people who have relatives in Ukraine to be able to bring them over as fast as possible.

“We want to make sure that we have routes for people fleeing disaster, war, persecution in Ukraine to come here.”

That statement came separately from his visit to the Cathedral of the Holy Family in London where he spoke a Ukrainian congregation, telling them the UK would do “everything it can to help economically, politically, diplomatically, militarily”.

He said the people of Ukraine were facing “the darkest times in modern memory” and described Russia’s invasion as a “barbaric and unprovoked attack”.

Mr Johnson, who is a Catholic himself, told the congregation of the Catholic cathedral that Ukrainians were neighbours with the UK, through shared ideals, as well as literally – with hundreds of thousands having come to live and work in Britain over the decades.

“I’m going to stress that there is no hostility in my heart towards the Russian people, none whatever – quite the reverse,” he said.

“My heart aches for the Russian parents who are already losing their children in this vicious and appalling war – just as it aches for the civilians and the people of Ukraine.”

He added that there was “no possible excuse” for the Russian leadership who chose “this path of violence”.