A Ukrainian-born woman living in Lincoln said she has been left with no option but to give up in her attempts to rescue her family from the ongoing conflict with Russia, opting to keep them in Poland where they’ll be offered “better rights”.
It has been 14 days since Russia launched a full-scale invasion on Ukraine, with attacks intensifying in key cities such as Kyiv and Mariupol, as civilians frantically try to either stay and fight for their lives, or migrate to another nation for safety.
The United Nations has now said that over two million people have now evacuated Ukraine, with over 1.2 million of those currently residing in the neighbouring country of Poland.
The Ukrainian flag is waved in front of a yellow and blue cathedral during an emotional event. | Photo: Bradley Wall
Christina Dymtryk Clark was born in Ukraine but now lives in Lincoln, and she has family members that have found themselves trapped in the conflict.
Christina’s cousin and her two children are in Poland after fleeing the conflict in Ukraine, but she has had to give up trying to bring them to the UK, due to complications with visa applications.
She said: “It is a shame and a bit embarrassing that as a British citizen I can’t do more to help my family in Ukraine.
“Both my brother and I were trying to see how we could bring her over here, but also make sure that she has some rights to work, as well as some rights for her 16-year-old to study.
“But at the moment we can’t see it being an easy process, so we’ve decided for her to stay in Poland because they are offering better rights and facilities for refugees.”
Refugees can leave Ukraine for another EU nation visa-free for the next three years, but in the UK you still require an entry cisa, for which tens of thousands of people have applied.
As of March 8, the Home Office says the UK has granted visas to 760 Ukrainian refugees under its new scheme, with 17,700 applications for people to re-join their relatives. However, nearly 600 refugees are stuck in Calais.
Gainsborough MP Sir Edward Leigh said on March 1 that Lincolnshire have “done our bit” with migration, to which he received intense backlash and followed up by saying his comments were taken out of context.
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Nominations are open for schools and education settings to be recognised in the 2022 Lincolnshire Education Excellence Awards.
The event is organised by Stonebow Media, publishers of The Lincolnite, to celebrate the best school and teachers in Greater Lincolnshire.
The headline sponsors making the awards possible are Lincoln College Group.
Twelve categories are now open for nominations. The deadline for nominations is June 3, with a judging lunch scheduled for June 7.
Nominations are open from parents, carers, friends, families or education settings themselves, so if you know someone who deserving of winning now is the time to vote!
The awards ceremony will be held at the Engine Shed on July 7.
It’s been a week since the controversial statue of Margaret Thatcher was installed in Grantham’s St Peter’s Hill.
The £300,000 bronze monument immediately caused a stir and debate from both supporters and opponents of the first female Prime Minister of the UK.
Within hours of its 7am installation last Sunday, it had already been egged by a man later revealed to be 59-year-old Jeremy Webster, a deputy director at the Attenborough Arts Centre at the University of Leicester.
Mr Webster’s mother-in-law recently described his actions as “childish”.
Quoted in the MailOnline she said: “Margaret Thatcher lasted a long time in power. She was a trailblazer as the first woman prime minister and she had such energy, even though I know she slept very little.
“I’m very surprised to hear about all of this [egg throwing]. I’m going to have to call my daughter. I wouldn’t have thought Jeremy would be the sort of person to do this. It seems very childish to me – he has a responsible job.”
There have been reports of other antisocial behaviour taking place including people urinating up the statue, but investigations into these are yet to be confirmed by officials.
Away from the statue itself, others took to social media to react to the new monument.
Twitterer @BolsoverBeast thought Mr Webster’s actions should be expanded as a way to… get more people involved?
I think it would be a good idea to put Thatcher’s statue on a low loader and tow it slowly around the country so that we all have a chance to throw something at it. pic.twitter.com/uftMqr0LgR
— Chloe Schlosberg (@ChloeSchlosberg) May 19, 2022
Some called back to the fate of other statues
@Irritatedllama called back to the fate of slave trader Edward Colston who was thrown into the Bristol Harby in June 2020.
It's absolutely disgraceful that people are throwing eggs at the Margaret Thatcher statue in Grantham! We need to deploy a taskforce to give it jolly good wash!#Granthampic.twitter.com/RKftKUls4u
It wasn’t long before a parody account of the statue was set up on Twitter – nor before “she” was interacting with other parody accounts.
It was awful. I could see almost all of Grantham
— That Statue of Thatcher (@thatcher_statue) May 18, 2022
A… positive view?
There were supporters of the statue, however, Darren Grimes from GBNews was one of the few popular posts calling on people not to “give in to threats of petty vandalism”. He later posted the statue should be in parliament – where it was previously rejected from.
I honestly think Margaret Thatcher would have found this first round of petty vandalism of her statue to be utterly hilarious.
The statue looks absolutely glorious.
Almost a decade on from her passing, she’s still winding them up!
Some, like @Jonnyhibberd were more measured in their response.
I don't see a problem with a Thatcher statue and I also don't see a problem with people throwing eggs at it. Thatcher is an important part of our history, and so is what a lot of people thought about her.
— Jonathan Hibberd 🇺🇦 (@Jonnyhibberd) May 18, 2022
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