Russia-Ukraine War: Ukraine's envoy to UK seeks F16s instead of jets to evacuate refugees

Vadym Prystaiko, Ukraine's ambassador to the United Kingdom, has indicated that fighter jets would be more valuable to Ukraine than sending a plane to pick up migrants. "If you want to send planes, send F-16s," Vadym Prystaiko told the Commons home affairs committee when asked if he would like to see jets fly to Poland or Romania to bring back refugees, according to The Guardian.

He predicted that at least 100,000 Ukrainians will travel to the UK to reconcile with the family. "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," Prystaiko told the MPs, The Guardian reported.

Moreover, the Ukrainian ambassador has asked for the visa restriction for refugees in the United Kingdom to be repealed. According to The Guardian, he told the Commons home affairs committee, "I understand how sensitive it is for your society...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."

'International community will be liable for massive humanitarian catastrophe'

Further, Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has warned that if a no-fly zone is not agreed upon, the international community will be liable for a massive "humanitarian catastrophe," and that the country is at risk. He added in his daily televised speech that Ukrainians had demonstrated over the last two weeks that they would never surrender. In addition, the deputy mayor of Kyiv said today that officials anticipated evacuating many more people from Irpin, Bucha, and Hostomel. He also stated that heat, water, power, and phone lines in Kyiv were completely operational.

New sanctions against Russian officials and oligarchs have been adopted by EU member states in response to the invasion of Ukraine. The EU's French presidency said the measures were approved during a meeting and would be formally adopted at the EU summit in Versailles on Thursday and Friday.

(With inputs from agencies)

Image: AP