More than 1.5 million people have fled Ukraine since Vladimir Putin launched his onslaught 10 days ago.
It is the fastest-growing refugee crisis in Europe since the Second World War, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said today.
The UN estimates more than four million people will be forced to cross borders to keep their families safe from Russian bombs and rockets.
It comes as France accuses the UK of ‘lacking humanity’ after 150 Ukrainians were reportedly turned away and told to obtain visas in Calais.
In a strongly-worded letter to Priti Patel, French interior minister Gerald Darmanin said: ‘It is imperative that your consular representation, exceptionally and for the duration of this crisis, is able to issue visas for family reunification on the spot in Calais.’
Questioned on the story this morning, Dominic Raab suggested support would be undermined for Ukraine if the UK let refugees in without visas.
‘Look, if we just open the door not only will we not benefit the people that we need to, the genuine refugees, but I think we undermine the popular support for this very thing, so I don’t think that’s the right thing to do’, he said.
‘We need to make sure that we’re acting for those that need our support.’
The justice secretary added he expected up to 200,000 Ukrainians could still come to the UK as the UK government’s refusal to waive visa restrictions is blasted as ‘unacceptable’.
Sharing his heartbreaking experience of the Romanian border, Andrew Morley, chief executive of World Vision International, said he met ‘lost and scared’ children.
‘We support children in countless crises across the world, including those I have recently visited such as Syria and the DRC, but I have never seen a more heartbreaking situation’, he said.
‘All the children I met were crossing the border in tears, with pain and fear in their eyes. They were lost and scared. They need the basics, simple, practical help.’
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has pushed Nato to impose a no-fly zone over his country to save lives.
In a severe warning to the alliance, he said ‘all the people who die from this day forward will also die because of you’.
But Putin has warned any third-party declaration of a no-fly zone over Ukraine will be considered ‘participation in the armed conflict’.
Mr Raab once again ruled out imposing a no-fly zone over Ukraine this morning saying this would lead to a ‘massive escalation’.
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He told Sky News’s Trevor Phillips on Sunday programme: ‘We’re not going to get ourselves into a direct military conflict with Putin because that would be a massive escalation, but also that feeds Putin’s narrative.
‘Putin wants to say that he’s actually in a struggle with the west – he’s not.’
Boris Johnson is set to announce a six-point plan to take on the Russian president today.
The prime minister has said ‘it is not future historians but the people of Ukraine who will be our judge’ over how the world reacts to Putin’s ‘hideous, barbarous assault’.
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