In the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the attitude of the British Boris Johnson government has always been to verbally express support for Ukraine, and even Queen Elizabeth II, who cannot publicly express political views, greeted the Ukrainian flag with a bouquet of blue and yellow flowers in the room, implicitly indicating that the British royal family was on the side of Ukraine.
However, according to the British "Sun" reported on March 11, a 2500-kilometer Ukrainian mother and daughter who drove 2500 kilometers to the Uk to take refuge hoped that the British government could take practical action to shelter them, and the mother and daughter trekked all the way to the British border but were denied entry without a British visa.
Alena Semenova, a 22-year-old university student attending medical school, and Tetyana Tsybanyuk, Alena's 40-year-old mother, who originally lived in Kiev, Ukraine.
In her diary, Alena recorded the "miserable" life of the mother and daughter in recent days.
On February 28, Alena and her mother were awakened by the sound of rockets flying over the house, and like many of their compatriots, the mother and daughter decided to flee Ukraine. Since Alena's godfather and godmother lived in Wales, England, and the United Kingdom had been expressing its support for the Ukrainian people, The Alena mother and daughter decided to drive to England, joining Alena's godfather Graham Blackledge and godmother Alla Blackledge.
Despite the traffic congestion along the way, Alena's mother and daughter eventually reached Lviv and crossed the Ukrainian border into Poland, and then the mother and daughter continued to drive through Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium, and at 10 p.m. on March 1, Alena mother and daughter drove 2,500 kilometers to Calais, France, planning to go to The United Kingdom.
Alena recalls that when she arrived in Calais, she and her mother were so happy that they couldn't believe they could do it, and they hoped that they could quickly hug Graham and Allah and let all their fears and troubles become a thing of the past.
The mother and daughter arrived at the port, bought tickets with the help of a female employee of an Irish ferry company, and when they registered the information, Alena wrote that they were going to Visit close people in Wales, England.
The mother and daughter successfully passed the Passport Control of the French side, however, when it was the turn of the British border officials to check, the two were asked to leave the car and follow the staff into the office, the two explained that they were refugees and wanted to seek asylum in the Uk, and finally they were rejected by the British side because they did not have a British visa.
Alena said it was 1 a.m. and the ferry they were going to take had left, but she and her mother were detained like criminals by British border officials.
Since the 1st, to the 11th, 10 days have passed, Alena and her mother are still trapped in France, the two sleep in the car every day, eat two porridges a day to survive, from time to time the French police come to suspect the land to investigate them.
Alena said she checked the British government website every day for news on how Ukrainians with no true relatives in the country applied for visas, but never saw any useful information.
In fact, on Monday, the Uk's Home Office revealed that of the 17,000 visa applications for Ukrainians that have been received, they have issued only 300.
Alena said she and her mother are very depressed right now, crying every day during the long wait. The two are running out of money, and they now hope that if they can cross the border in the future, they will still have money to buy gasoline, and the 40-year-old mother says she is afraid of death and worried about how her daughter will live after she dies.
Alena's godfather, Graham Blackridge, was originally British and a podiatrist, and in 2016, Graham married his wife, Allah, in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine. Allah was a lawyer while in Ukraine and fled from the Donbass region to Kiev in 2014.
At the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, Allah had been applying for British citizenship, but many of her relatives were still stranded in Ukraine.
The Breckridges sent a plea to Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his cabinet, "I ask you to take a step back and, as a human being, to lend a helping hand to the Ukrainians," "to get them to come and provide them with shelter, to provide them with food, to take care of them." "You should be ashamed to accuse those who seek asylum in the UK of being spies."
Local people support the Brekridges, and many ordinary people say they will provide accommodation for Ukrainians.
The Sun said the attitude of the British government is not the same as that of British citizens.
Image source: theSun, BING
Edit: Zhang Zhang