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  • Ukraine: UK embassy suspends student, work visa applications in Nigeria

    Ukraine: UK embassy suspends student, work visa applications in Nigeria

    By Becky Adi

    The United Kingdom Embassy in Nigeria has announced a temporary suspension of study, work, and family visa applications, as priority was now being placed on applications made under the Ukraine Family Scheme.

    In a statement on Tuesday, the embassy announced that Ukraine Family Scheme was launched in response to the humanitarian crisis arising from the invasion of Ukraine.

    The statement titled, ‘Temporary Suspension of Priority Visas for Student, Work and Family Applications’, further noted that Nigerians, whose passports were ready for collection, would be contacted by the Visa Application Centre.

    It read, “UK Visas and Immigration is currently prioritising applications made under the Ukraine Family Scheme, following its launch and in response to the humanitarian crisis arising from the invasion of Ukraine.

    “As a result, UKVI has temporarily suspended priority and super-priority services for new study, work, and family applications. Customers with standard applications in study, work, and family routes may experience some delays in the processing of their application.

    “We are still currently unable to offer PV for visitor applications in Nigeria. Standard visitor visa applications are currently taking an average of six weeks to process.

    “Applicants will be contacted by the Visa Application Centre (VAC) when their passport is ready for collection. They should not attend the VAC until they have been invited to do so.

    “Where there are extremely compassionate or compelling circumstances (for example, a medical emergency), UKVI may consider expediting specific cases. However, the bar for this is high and will be assessed on a case-by-case basis. If a request is exceptionally urgent, applicants can contact UK Visas and Immigration for help. Please note that this is a chargeable service for overseas customers.

    “We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.”

  • Ukraine Economy Could Collapse If War Continues – IMF

    Ukraine Economy Could Collapse If War Continues – IMF

    Ukraine’s government continues to function, the banking system is stable and debt payments are viable in the short term, but the Russian invasion could plunge Ukraine into a devastating recession, the International Monetary Fund said Monday.

    And it warned that the war could have broader repercussions, including threatening global food security due to rising prices and the inability to plant crops, especially wheat.

    At a minimum the country would see “output falling 10 percent this year assuming a prompt resolution of the war,” the IMF said in an analysis of the economy in the wake of the Russian invasion.

    But the fund warned of “massive uncertainty” around the forecasts, and if the conflict is prolonged, the situation will worsen.

    Citing wartime data for conflicts in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen, the IMF said the “annual output contraction could eventually be much higher, in the range of 25-35 percent.”

    The country’s economy grew 3.2 percent in 2021 amid a record grain harvest and strong consumer spending.

    But in the wake of the Russian invasion on February 24, “the economy in Ukraine dramatically changed,” said Vladyslav Rashkovan, alternate executive director for Ukraine on the IMF board.

    “As of March 6, 202 schools, 34 hospitals, more than 1,500 residential houses including multi-apartment houses, tens of kilometers of roads, and countless objects of critical infrastructures in several Ukrainian cities have been fully or partially destroyed by Russian troops,” the official said in a statement.

    Ports and airports also have been closed due to “due to massive destruction,” he said.

    Oleg Ustenko, economic adviser to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, last week estimated the damage at $100 billion so far.

    – ‘Hunger in Africa’ –

    Despite the extensive damage, the government and the country have continued to function.

    “Banks are open, working even during the weekends,” Rashkovan said in the statement dated March 9.

    As of March 1, the country held foreign reserves of $27.5 billion, “which is sufficient for Ukraine to meet its commitments,” he said.

    The IMF, which last week approved a $1.4 billion emergency aid program for the country, said given large reserves and significant financial support “debt sustainability does not appear to be at risk” in the short term, although there are “very large” uncertainties.

    Beyond the human and economic losses in Ukraine, the IMF cautions about the spillovers from the war to the global economy.

    Since the conflict began, the prices of energy and agriculture have soared and the fund warned they could worsen, fueling rising inflation.

    “Disruptions to the spring agriculture season could also curtail exports and growth and imperil food security,” the report said.

    Ukraine and Russia, considered the “breadbasket of Europe,” are among the largest wheat exporters in the world. Most Ukrainian wheat is exported in summer and autumn.

    The initial impact will be on prices, which would also push prices of other food like corn higher, according to the IMF.

    But an extended conflict could hit supplies if farmers are unable to plant.

    “War in Ukraine means hunger in Africa,” IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said Sunday on CBS.

    The UN World Food Program in a report Friday cautioned that “Export disruptions in the Black Sea have immediate implications for countries such as Egypt, which heavily rely on grain imports from Russia and Ukraine.”

    And countries that rely heavily on imported grain will also feel the pain, including “hunger hotspots such as Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Syria and Yemen.”

  • Ukraine gives conditions during peace talks with Russia

    Ukraine gives conditions during peace talks with Russia

    The Ukrainian delegation is seeking a ceasefire and a troop withdrawal during the peace talks with Russia.

    Ukrainian Presidential Advisor, Mykhailo Podolyak disclosed this on Monday.

    He said Ukraine would be ready to talk about any neighbourly relations and political settlements with Russia only after the implementation of the country’s positions, NAN reports.

    In a terse statement, Podolyak reiterated the need for peace and the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine.

    “Our positions remain unchanged: peace, immediate ceasefire, withdrawal of all Russian troops,” Podolyak said.

    The fourth round of negotiations between Ukrainian and Russian delegations was scheduled for Monday via video link.

    In-person talks held previously in Belarus and working group discussions taking place in recent days, so far no breakthrough.

    Both Kiev and Moscow have expressed cautious optimism in the past day about the course of peace talks, even as Russia’s assault on Ukraine intensifies.

    “If we compare the two delegations’ positions at the talks at the very beginning and today, we will see considerable progress,” Leonid Slutsky, a Russian lawmaker specialising in foreign policy said.

  • Ukraine: UK sanctions 386 Russian lawmakers

    Ukraine: UK sanctions 386 Russian lawmakers

    By Becky Adi

    Britain on Friday slapped a fresh wave of sanctions on Moscow, targeting 386 members of Russia’s parliament who supported President Vladimir Putin’s devastating invasion of Ukraine.

    The new sanctions against members of Russia’s Duma, the lower house of parliament, ban them from travelling to Britain as well as accessing any assets they hold in the UK.

    The lawmakers were sanctioned after they voted in February to recognise the breakaway republics of Lugansk and Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, providing a pretext for the war, Britain’s foreign ministry said.

    “We’re targeting those complicit in Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine and those who support this barbaric war,” Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said.

    “We will not let up the pressure and will continue to tighten the screw on the Russian economy through sanctions.”

    The move came after the government on Thursday froze the assets of Chelsea Football Club’s Russian owner Roman Abramovich, the highest-profile oligarch yet sanctioned by any Western country.

    Abramovich, 55, was one of seven more oligarchs slapped with new British restrictions over the invasion, including his former business partner Oleg Deripaska.

    Prime Minister Boris Johnson had been accused of delaying action against wealthy Russians, and turning a blind eye to Russian money that has coursed through London since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

    Russian vessels and aircraft are already barred from the UK.

    AFP

  • Nigeria Govt. Evacuates 123 More Citizens Who Fled Ukraine After Russia Invasion

    Nigeria Govt. Evacuates 123 More Citizens Who Fled Ukraine After Russia Invasion

    One hundred and twenty-three (123) more Nigerians who fled Ukraine amid the invasion by Russia have been brought back home.

    They returned to Nigeria aboard an Air Peace plane with registration number 9HSLF which arrived at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja at about 1:20am on Friday.

    Officials of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and that of other relevant government agencies were already on the ground to receive the returnees.

    Also at the airport to receive them were officials of the Nigeria Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM); the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants, and Internally Displaced Persons (NCFRMI), and the Federal Ministry of Health, among others.

    While the evacuees comprise 122 adults and one infant, a further breakdown of the returnees shows that 75 of them are males and the remaining 48 others are females.

    The latest batch of stranded Nigerians was evacuated from Warsaw, the capital city of Poland where they had fled to days after Russia invaded Ukraine

    Following their arrival, the evacuees were subjected to the usual procedures such as documentation and test for COVID-19.

    Thereafter, they were given the sum of $100 each to cover their transportation fare from the airport to their destinations in various parts of the country.

    Since the invasion of Ukraine by Russian soldiers, there have been concerns by authorities in Nigeria and other countries over the safety of their citizens caught in the war.

    No fewer than 5,000 Nigerians, the majority of whom are students, are estimated to be living in Ukraine before the invasion.

    In a bid to ensure the return of Nigerians stranded in Ukraine, the Federal Government activated an evacuation exercise following the approval of $8.5 million by President Muhammadu Buhari.

    The first batch of returnees arrived on Friday last week and so far, about 1,200 Nigerians have been evacuated from Romania, Poland, and Hungary where many of them had been taking refuge.

  • Ukraine: UK Govt Sanctions Abramovich, Russian Oligarchs

    Ukraine: UK Govt Sanctions Abramovich, Russian Oligarchs

    The United Kingdom (UK) has frozen the assets of Roman Abramovich, Chelsea’s owner, and six other Russian oligarchs.

    The sanction was announced on Thursday after the billionaires were added to the country’s sanctions list in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

    The other targeted oligarchs are Oleg Deripaska who has stakes in En+ Group; Igor Sechin, chief executive officer of Rosneft; Andrey Kostin, chairman of VTB bank; Alexei Miller, CEO of Gazprom; Nikolai Tokarev, president of Transneft; and Dmitri Lebedev, chairman of the board of directors of Bank Rossiya.

    Boris Johnson, UK prime minister, said there will be “no safe havens for those who have supported Putin’s vicious assault on Ukraine”.

    He added that the sanctions further demonstrates “the UK’s unwavering support for the Ukrainian people”.

    “We will be ruthless in pursuing those who enable the killing of civilians, destruction of hospitals and illegal occupation of sovereign allies,” he said.

    Liz Truss, UK foreign secretary, said oligarchs and kleptocrats “have no place” in the country’s economy or society.

    “With their close links to Putin they are complicit in his aggression,” Truss said.

    “The blood of the Ukrainian people is on their hands. They should hang their heads in shame.

    “Our support for Ukraine will not waver. We will not stop in this mission to ramp up the pressure on the Putin regime and choke off funds to his brutal war machine.”

    WHAT HAPPENS TO CHELSEA?

    The latest penalty comes a few days after Abramovich was forced to put Chelsea FC up for sale as pressure mounted on him over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

    The 55-year-old had also been forced to hand over the stewardship and care of the club to trustees of its foundation.

    While announcing the sanctions, the UK government acknowledged that they would have severe effects on the London-based football club.

    It however said the club will be allowed to carry out a number of football-related activities.

    “This includes permissions for the club to continue playing matches and other football-related activity which will, in turn, protect the Premier League, the wider football pyramid, loyal fans and other clubs,” the statement reads.

    “This licence will only allow certain explicitly named actions to ensure the designated individual is not able to circumvent UK sanctions. The licence will be kept under constant review and we will work closely with the football authorities.”

  • 60 Ukraine Returnees Test Positive For COVID-19

    60 Ukraine Returnees Test Positive For COVID-19

    The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) reports that 60 Nigerians evacuated from Ukraine have tested positive for COVID-19.

    The NCDC’s data revealed that 24 hours after making known the lowest daily figure ever recorded since the outbreak in 2020, two cases. Just a day after, it recorded 118 new infections.

    The statistics show that the Nigerian returnees from Ukraine contributed to the surge, as they accounted for a total of 60 out of the whole amount.

    772 evacuees returned to Nigeria on March 4, 2022, through Max Air and Air Peace, following the invasion of Ukraine by Russia on February 24.

    Since the invasion, there have been reported casualties from both countries, leading many residents of Ukraine, including Nigerians, to flee to neighbouring countries.

    The Nigerian government had approved the release of $8.5 million for the prompt evacuation of at least 5,000 Nigerians fleeing the Russian-Ukrainian conflict zone to Poland, Romania, Hungary, and Slovakia.

  • We Will Fight To The End, Says Ukraine President Zelensky

    We Will Fight To The End, Says Ukraine President Zelensky

    Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, invoking the wartime defiance of British prime minister Winston Churchill, vowed Tuesday to “fight to the end” in a historic virtual speech to UK lawmakers.

    “We will not give up and we will not lose,” he said, giving a day-by-day account of Russia’s invasion that dwelt on the costs in lives of civilians including Ukrainian children.

    “We will fight to the end, at sea, in the air. We will continue fighting for our land, whatever the cost.

    “We will fight in the forests, in the fields, on the shores, in the streets,” he told the packed chamber, which greeted him with a standing ovation at the start and rose again at the end.

    The speech was a conscious echo of Churchill’s landmark address to the House of Commons in June 1940, after British forces were forced to retreat from France in the face of a Nazi German onslaught.

    “We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender,” Churchill said after the retreat at Dunkirk.

    Zelensky, wearing a military-green T-shirt and sitting next to Ukraine’s blue-and-yellow flag, also invoked William Shakespeare as he delivered the chamber’s first-ever virtual speech by a foreign leader.

    “The question for us now is, to be or not to be,” he said in his 10-minute speech, which followed similar addresses to members of the US Congress and the European Parliament.

    “Now I can give you a definitive answer: it is yes, to be.”

    Zelensky, while thanking Western countries for their retaliation against Russia, also noted that NATO had failed to accede to his demands to impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine.

    Appealing directly to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, he said: “But please increase the pressure of sanctions against this country. And please recognise this country as a terrorist state.

    “And please make sure that our skies are safe.

    “Please make sure that you do what needs to be done and what is stipulated by the greatness of your country.”

    ‘Moved our hearts’
    In response, Johnson said “never before in all our centuries of parliamentary democracy has the House listened to such an address”.

    “He has moved the hearts of everybody in this House,” he said, vowing that the West would press on with arms supplies to Ukraine and further sanctions, after the US and UK announced a ban on Russian oil.

    But in common with other Western leaders, Johnson has warned that NATO enforcement of a no-fly zone would risk all-out war with nuclear-armed Russia.

    Speeches by foreign heads of state are a rare occurrence in the “mother of all parliaments”, and standing ovations are rarer still.

    The last such speech was in October 2018, when Dutch King Willem-Alexander addressed a joint sitting of the Commons and House of Lords, in person.

    Zelensky’s address came after Ukraine’s ambassador in London, Vadym Prystaiko, received a minute-long standing ovation from MPs when he attended the lower chamber on March 2.

    Zelensky has been in daily contact with Western leaders since Russia launched its shock invasion on February 24, eliciting public sympathy if not all he wants in terms of practical support.

    On March 5, Zelensky addressed nearly 300 members of the US Congress by Zoom to plead for financial aid and the delivery of Soviet-era planes from NATO members in eastern Europe.

    He addressed the European Parliament on March 1 and gave an emotional plea for Ukraine to be given “immediate” EU membership.

    Then, the English translator choked up as Zelensky described how civilians had been killed in Russia’s bombardment of his cities.

    AFP

  • Tambuwal Applauds FG Over Ukraine Evacuation, Tackling Insecurity

    Tambuwal Applauds FG Over Ukraine Evacuation, Tackling Insecurity

    By Muhammad Ibrahim, Sokoto
    The Federal Government has been commended for its sustained efforts in rescuing and bringing back Nigerians, especially students trapped in Ukraine as a result of the invasion of the former by Russia.
    This was contained in a release signed and issued to newsmen in Sokoto by the governor’s media aide,Muhammad Bello.
    Gov. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal of Sokoto state who gave the commendation while receiving the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyema also applauded the apex government for its non-partisan support to the state in checkmating the spate of insecurity that has ravaged parts of it and the country in the recent past.
    “I commend the Federal Government for the ongoing efforts to evacuate trapped Nigerians from Ukraine,” the Governor said while singling out the minister for his uncommon determination and patriotism in ensuring the triumph of Nigeria’s diplomacy.
    “He is among the few foreign ministers we have had that speak every important language in the world. He is doing well and representing our country very well in every fora internationally,” the Governor explained.
    Praying to God to continue to strengthen President Muhammadu Buhari to confront all security challenges facing the country, Tambuwal appreciated the support of the Federal Government in tackling insecurity in the state, emphasizing that “there is synergy among security apparatuses working in Sokoto.”
    “Peace is gradually returning to Sokoto,” he said, noting that “whatever affects one state in Nigeria affects all and even neighboring countries.”
    On the role of Sokoto in sustaining national cohesion and integration, the Governor said the state “is one state where everyone is treated equally, explaining that there no discrimination in terms of provision of subsidized education, housing and empowerment to the people of Sokoto and Nigerians of all shades and convictions living in the state.
    “We must work towards ensuring that all of us are one. We must not discriminate against one another. We must work as one people who have the country at heart,” Tambuwal advocated.
    In his remarks, Onyema said himself and his team were in Sokoto to commiserate with the government and people of the state over the tragedies witnessed and suffered over time.
    He said within this period the international community has inundated the ministry to convey condolences and assured the state of the continued solidarity of the Federal Government and the international community.
    According to him, the international community is behind the Governor and the state, while expressing profound sympathy and condolences to the families and victims of unfortunate incidents that were witnessed in the state.
    “Mr President is proud of you and the state. Many people have spoken sincerely and highly of his and state hospitality,” the Minister noted, saying
    that he hopes other states will emulate what you and Sokoto are doing.”
    On the efforts to move Nigerians trapped in Ukraine out of the embattled country, Onyema said all the students of Sokoto state caught in the tragedy have  been evacuated, just as the government continues to work tirelessly to ensure the evacuation of all Nigerians there.
    He explained that in that regard the over 400 students trapped in Sumy, North-Eastern Ukraine will now be evacuated after difficult negotiations with the Ukrainian authorities.

  • We Will Not Tolerate Recruitment Of Nigerians As Mercenaries In Ukraine – FG

    The Federal Government on Monday said it will not tolerate the recruitment of Nigerians as foreign fighters in Ukraine.

    According to a statement signed by Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson, Francisca Omayuli, the government is in talks with Ukrainian counterparts to forestall such an occurrence.

    The government’s statement comes after reports emerged of Nigerian volunteers being drafted into the Ukrainian army at the Ukrainian Embassy in Abuja.

    “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs contacted the Embassy to verify the speculation,” the statement said. “The Ukrainian Embassy refuted the allegation, but confirmed that a number of Nigerians had approached the Embassy indicating their willingness to fight on the side of Ukraine in its ongoing conflict with Russia.

    “Furthermore, the Embassy clarified that the Ukrainian government is not admitting foreign volunteer fighters and as such dissociated itself from the claim that it is requesting $1,000 from each Nigerian volunteer for air ticket and visa.

    “As a responsible member of the international community and consistent with out obligations under international law, Nigeria discourages the use of mercenaries anywhere in the world and will not tolerate the recruitment, in Nigeria, of Nigerians as mercenaries to fight in Ukraine or anywhere in the world.

    “The Federal Government will continue to engage with the Embassy of Ukraine in Nigeria and other relevant authorities to prevent this possibility.”