Some 760 visas have been granted for Ukrainians to come to the UK, transport secretary Grant Shapps has said.
The cabinet minister defended the UK’s record on providing an escape route for Ukrainians and insisted the country’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy did not want his countrymen travelling too far from their homeland.
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 £400 million, in addition the British people have been incredibly generous as well.
“Geographically we are, of course, spaced further to the West and President Zelenskyy 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.”
The home office has faced criticism over the way it has handled the refugee crisis and is under pressure to go much further and faster.
Senior Tory MPs have reportedly even called for the home secretary Priti Patel to quit over the chaotic response to the crisis and fellow cabinet ministers rounded on her yesterday.
A cabinet source told The Times: “Priti talked about everything the home office was doing but it quickly became clear she was just going round in circles.”
Shapps was apparently one of those who “drilled down” into the detail during yesterday’s cabinet meeting, leaving Patel squirming.
Boris Johnson has also been accused of turning away Ukrainian refugees to appease his anti-immigrant base support and shore up votes for the next election.
David Gauke, a former Tory justice secretary, said the UK’s relatively low intake of refugees was “the biggest weakness” of the government’s response to the war in Ukraine.
According to The Times, Gauke said the UK’s confusion over refugees was a mixture of “incompetence” and a dogged adherence to its ideological drive to cut UK immigration.
Separately today, Shapps made it a criminal offence for Russian planes to enter UK airspace.
And in their latest intelligence update, the Ministry of Defence said Ukrainian cities were continuing to suffer heavy shelling but Vladimir Putin’s assault on capital Kyiv had failed to make major progress.
“The cities of Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Sumy and Mariupol remain encircled by Russian forces and continue to suffer heavy Russian shelling,” the MoD said.
“Ukrainian air defences appear to have enjoyed considerable success against Russia’s modern combat aircraft, probably preventing them achieving any degree of control of the air.”
It comes as foreign secretary Liz Truss is set to meet with officials in Washington to discuss further support for Ukraine.
Both the UK and US have been thanked by Zelenskyy for their moves to sanction Russian oil.
On Tuesday Zelenskyy received standing ovations during a virtual speech to the House of Commons, in which he called for the UK to “make sure that our Ukrainian skies are safe”.
The historic address came shortly after ministers announced the UK will phase out the import of Russian oil and oil products by the end of the year.