The UK’s home secretary has pledged to streamline the online visa application system for Ukrainians following criticism of her response to the crisis. Priti Patel said that from Tuesday, Ukrainian refugees would no longer have to go to a visa application centre to provide their biometrics before coming to the UK.

The US vice-president, Kamala Harris, says she will discuss issues with Poland that will force Russia to pay a price for its invasion on Ukraine, reports Reuters. During a visit to Warsaw on Thursday, she also said that Poland was doing “extraordinary work” to help Ukrainian refugees.

More than 2.3 million people have fled Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion two weeks ago, the UN said on Thursday. The UN migration agency said that of those who had been forced to take refuge in neighbouring countries, 112,000 people are third-country nationals.

The UK has frozen the assets of seven Russian businessmen including Roman Abramovich, Igor Sechin, Oleg Deripaska and Dmitri Lebedev after they were added to the country’s sanctions list, reports Reuters. Abramovich is the owner of Chelsea Football Club, Deripaska has stakes in En+ Group, Sechin is the chief executive of Rosneft and Lebedev is chair of the board of directors of Bank Rossiya.

Russia’s foreign ministry has said Moscow will no longer participate in the Council of Europe, the continent’s leading human rights organisation founded in response to the humanitarian outrages of the second world war.

Source: The Guardian

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