A Ukrainian refugee living in south London has told of her heartbreak after a sudden change to UK visa rules left her separated from her young son.
Olga Brandes-Shytikova, 42, came to the UK with her 17-year-old daughter, Yevheniia, in May under the Homes for Ukraine scheme after fleeing their war-torn homeland.
Her 11-year-old son, Mykyta, remained in Ukraine with his father. But the boy has recently been passed into the care of his 69-year-old grandmother, after his father was called up for military service.
Mrs Brandes-Shytikova had planned to apply to bring Mykyta to live with her in the UK under the Ukraine Family Scheme.
But she was distraught when the Government controversially ended the scheme with immediate effect on Monday afternoon.
The Home Office insists Ukrainian refugees in the UK can still apply for family members to join them under under the separate Homes for Ukraine scheme. But this requires sponsorship by someone in the UK who has settled status, which Mrs Brandes-Shytikov does not have.
Mrs Brandes-Shytikov said it is “very scary” to know her son remains in war-ravaged Ukraine, where he is “very unhappy”.
“Talking about it makes me cry,” she told The Times. “There were requirements - I needed to earn more money and I needed a bigger home for my son to live with us. I did all these things.
“I feel that I did everything the government wanted me to do,” added Mrs Brandes-Shytikova, who works full-time at a Lidl supermarket in Croydon.“I found a job and I found a new place to live so that my son would have his own room. And now they have changed the rules. We did not expect this.
“[Mykyta] is getting sick and we think it’s because he is very unhappy.
“It is very scary for me to have my son separate from me. It is good to have my daughter here, but we are not complete.”
Mrs Brandes-Shytikova decided to move to the UK with her daughter after a close friend was killed in the war, and a rocket fell near where they lived.
Yevheniia is studying art at Croydon College, and volunteers at a food bank in South Norwood, south London.
“My husband stayed in Ukraine because we must fight in the army, which he wants to do,” Mrs Brandes-Shytikova told The Times.
Conservative ministers have been criticised for being “cruel” after the unexpected announcement at 3pm on Monday that the Ukraine Family Scheme would be scrapped with immediate effect.
The visa scheme was made to allow people to fleeing the Ukraine war to join family members who had already come to the UK.
It was closed to new applications with immediate effect on Monday, just days before the second anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Luke Piper, head of immigration at migrant support charity the Work Rights Centre, which is supporting Mrs Brandes-Shytikova, condemned the changes which he said came as a “complete surprise”.
“It’s hard to reconcile these changes with the messages of solidarity the UK government repeatedly sends,” he told The Times.
“The situation in Ukraine remains unsafe, especially for children. The changes mean that a Ukrainian in the UK without settled status cannot bring a family member to join them here via the Ukraine schemes.
“They must now find someone with British citizenship or settled status willing to sponsor their loved one instead, but this may be difficult.”
The number of people granted a visa who arrived in the UK having fled the war in Ukraine has now topped 200,000, figures published last week showed.
As of February 12, some 56,800 of the 200,200 arrivals were under the Ukraine Family Scheme. The remaining 143,400 arrivals were people granted visas under the separate Homes for Ukraine scheme.
A total of 31,400 applications to extend permission to stay under the Ukraine family scheme and Ukraine extension scheme had been granted as of February 13, according to the latest data.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “Since the launch of our Ukraine schemes, the first of their kind to be operationalised anywhere in the world, the UK has offered or extended sanctuary to over 280,000 Ukrainians.
“Our priority remains continuing to provide safe and secure haven for those fleeing the ongoing conflict, whilst providing certainty and assurance for Ukrainians in the UK on their future as the war continues.
"It is right that we continue to adapt and develop the visa routes to ensure they remain as efficient and sustainable as possible.
“Ukrainian nationals who would have qualified under the Ukraine Family Scheme will still be able to apply to Homes for Ukraine. Family members who are settled here can also still continue to sponsor a family member to come to the UK under Homes for Ukraine.”
