By BBC News
Staff
The announcement of a new scheme that will allow people in the UK to house Ukrainian refugees dominates the front pages. Households will be paid £350 per month to host refugees, in a move the Sunday Telegraph says is “unprecedented”. Members of the public will be able to fill out an “expression of interest” form from tomorrow, the paper reports.
The Sunday Express also leads on the scheme to support Ukrainian refugees. The paper reports that Communities Secretary Michael Gove will unveil the plan he says will provide “a safe haven for thousands of families enduring their darkest hours”. It also reports the latest remarks by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky who said “Putin must raze” the capital Kyiv to seize it, and Russian officials, who said Western arms convoys are “legitimate targets”.
The Homes for Ukraine scheme also features on the front page of The Mail on Sunday along with the announcement of further plans. The paper claims the mansions of Russian oligarchs would be seized and used to house Ukrainians fleeing the war. It says this would be part of “an extraordinary plan” being championed by Mr Gove. But it is currently being blocked by senior officials in the Treasury and Foreign Office, according to the paper.
The plea to people to open their doors to Ukrainian refugees also makes the front of the Sunday People. This time it comes from Charlie Rowley, a survivor of the Salisbury Novichok attack suspected to have been carried out by Russian operatives. The paper reports that Mr Rowley, whose partner died in the attack in Wiltshire, is urging people to welcome those fleeing the war. He has told the paper “we can’t turn a blind eye to desperate people”.
The Sunday Mirror is calling for “vital supplies and “a safe passage” for dozens of orphaned babies and toddlers its says are currently hiding in a basement as shelling across Ukraine continues. The paper calls it the “heart-breaking reality of Putin’s war”. It says the Kyiv children are among 100,000 orphans who lived in 700 homes across Ukraine when the conflict started. It features a picture on its front page that it says shows dozens of toddlers hiding from the bombing.
The Sunday Times reports that an entire city in eastern Ukraine has been wiped out in the Russian invasion, citing a Ukrainian regional governor. Correspondent Richard Spencer writes that Russian-backed separatists claimed to have captured Volnovakha after heavy bombardment demolished much of the city of 21,000 people. The UK plan for refugees also features on the paper’s front page.
And The Daily Star reports that one of its readers told the police he had seen a UFO . He also told the newspaper that after he reported the sighting to the force, he was then visited by two “government officials”.
original source: Newspaper headlines: UK refugee scheme and plea to help orphans
