There’s a lot more activity here today. At least a half-dozen Ukrainian families have travelled to Paris to get visas.
Others have come from Paris or Brussels after completing their papers and are now awaiting approval of their visas.
Some transport as much as they can from Ukraine in their automobiles, while others carry their things in backpacks and shopping bags.
They’re all exhausted and frustrated by the difficult procedure they’ve been through.
The UK government’s statement today is unlikely to make much of a difference to the hundreds of individuals who have already spent most of the week here; most expect their visas to be accepted before the new system goes live next Tuesday.
Vira Pinchuk, 29, comes from Ivano-Frankivsk, a city in western Ukraine. She and her spouse already have visas and reside in London.
She travelled to the Polish border to pick up her mother and two sons, ages five and nine and is now awaiting approval of their visas.
She claims that no one from the UK government has approached her about how to submit their application. “No assistance,” she says.
Ministers from Ukraine and Russia met to assess each other.
The flauntweekly’s diplomatic reporter, James Landale, who is in Turkey for the meeting of foreign ministers, said there had been modest progress.
“I don’t believe we’ve made much progress,” he added, adding that they’d both come to “measure one other up.”
He characterised Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s rhetoric as hostile, adding he was firm in his defence of Moscow’s activities.
On the subject of further meetings, he stated that Ukraine was eager to participate, and Russia’s Sergei Lavrov did not rule them out but made it plain that these conversations did not supplant the formal talks in Belarus.
