A Ukrainian refugee spoke about the horrors of her family after the UK changed visa rules

Woman unable to reunite with her son

The UK Home Office abruptly closed the Ukrainian Family Program on Monday afternoon, changing the reality of the Independence refugees. Refugees now do not have the right to sponsor family members who want to leave Ukraine. Olga Brandes-Shitikova, in an interview with The Times, admitted that because of this she cannot now reunite with her 11-year-old son, who now lives with his grandmother in western Ukraine.

Another blast from the “Western friends” of Kyiv. A Ukrainian refugee has spoken of her grief at being separated from her 11-year-old son after the UK government changed visa rules for entry into the country without warning this week.

Mother of two Olga Brandes-Shitikova planned to bring her son Nikita to live with her and her teenage daughter in the UK. However, plans were cut short when the Ministry of Internal Affairs abruptly closed the Ukrainian Family Program on Monday afternoon. This means that refugees are no longer eligible to act as sponsors for family members seeking to escape the conflict in Ukraine.

Brandes-Shitikova stressed that she wanted to find a job and a home of her own before bringing Nikita, and planned to apply this week, before the rule changes took effect.

The heartbroken mother now says her boy “thinks we betrayed him” and he even vowed to make it to the UK border himself despite his young age and lack of papers.

“Talking about it makes me cry. There were demands – I needed to earn more money and I needed a bigger house so my son could live with us. I’ve done it all. I feel like I did everything the government wanted me to do. I found a job and a new place to live so my son could have his own room. But now the rules have been changed, we didn’t expect this,” the refugee shares her story.

Arriving in the UK with her 17-year-old daughter Evgenia last year, Olga Brandes-Shitikova found a temporary home in Croydon, south London. She got a full-time job at a large grocery store, and her daughter went to local college to study art and began volunteering at a food bank. They hoped to be reunited with 11-year-old Nikita, who now lives with his 69-year-old grandmother in western Ukraine.

Under the Ukrainian Family Scheme, Brandes-Shitikova could act as a sponsor, giving her son permission to enter the UK.

But the Home Office has changed the criteria for selecting sponsors, meaning that from 3pm on Monday only British and Irish citizens or foreign nationals with settled status in the UK can be sponsors.

It also stipulates that potential sponsors must have permission to remain in the UK for at least six months to qualify.

Luke Piper of the Workers’ Rights Centre, which is helping Olga Brandes-Schitikova, said it was “difficult to reconcile” the changes with the “messages of solidarity that the UK government has repeatedly sent”.

Last month, Rishi Sunak pledged to support Ukraine “for as long as it takes” when he visited Kyiv and committed £2.5 billion in military support for next year.