Ireland accused of ‘empty gesture’ on visas as mother and son are stranded in Kyiv

An Irish executive based in Kyiv has described the Government’s visa waiver for citizens of Ukraine as “too little too late”.

Des O’Maonaigh, who has been trying for the last two weeks to get a visa for his partner Svetlana’s son Kirill (14), said the waiver announced by Taoiseach Micheál Martin came only after Ukrainian air space was closed and no flights out of the country were available.

Mr O’Maonaigh who works in the banking sector said he had travelled to Ireland in early February to be close to his mother who was in hospital. As he watched the worsening situation in Ukraine he and Svetlana, who already holds a visa for Ireland, decided to apply for a visa for Kirill so they could both join him in Dublin.

However, he said despite Government assurances that families of Irish workers in Ukraine would have their applications for visas expedited he was “given the run around”.

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He said an application was made online on Tuesday, February 15th and the first available appointment to present papers at a visa processing centre in Kyiv was on February 18th. Despite the family’s best efforts to anticipate the requirements and supply all documents, including proof of Svetlana’s sole guardianship of Kirill, and a host of subsequent emails and telephone calls , Mr O’Maonaigh said “there was a complete lack of urgency”.

By Thursday morning when the invasion had started the family still had no visa. “There was just no humanity, no compassion, no sense of urgency”, he said.

With the invasion underway the family decided to seek the urgent return of Kirill’s passport and make land-based arrangements to leave Kyiv.

Mr O’Maonaigh said the first move was to get Svetlana and Kirill out of the home they shared as this was in the government quarter, close to the presidential palace where Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said he will remain. As such, the area was considered a target and Svetlana and Kirill spent Thursday night in a bomb shelter near a school.

“There is 1.4 million people trying to get out of Kyiv and the roads to the Polish border are choked with traffic. I have friends who spent seven hours yesterday and only travelled 30 kilometres,” Mr O’Maonaigh said.

On Friday night, Svetlana, along with her 80 year old mother and 90 year-old father, was again taking refuge in the bomb shelter, while she hoped to get a train to Lviv near the Polish border next week.

“Lifting visa requirements when nobody can get a flight out is just an empty gesture,” he said.

The Department of Justice, which administers the visa system, has been asked to comment.

The Department of Foreign Affairs said it was not in a position to comment on specific cases. On Friday, it said it remained in contact with 94 Irish citizens in Ukraine who had registered with them.

It confirmed that the requirement for Ukrainian citizens to have a visa to travel to Ireland had been dropped with “immediate effect”.