The UK visa application system for Ukraine requires mothers (with valid internationally acceptable passports in their possession) currently suffering with their children in cold open fields or bomb shelters within battlefields, to compose computer generated PDF documents (no other is permitted) to evidence their family and sponsor’s credentials as bombs rain down. If the applicant can also survive this additional trauma of completing a Gov.uk registration and application process, the email they will receive ends with the sentence: “You should not travel until you have received a permission letter to travel to the UK.”
Ukrainian international passports should be acceptable at our borders without a visa, which can follow within a specific timeframe, once the applicant and children are safe in the UK.
The advent of computing power and electronically transferable data is not a reason to require victims to possibly die in a conflict zone while they navigate complex software (if they even have the hardware) and then wait for an email acceptance message in an inbox.
Tom Earl
Lerryn, Cornwall, UK