'Please give us a safe place to stay': Ukrainian woman who fled to Wales pleads with West to do more

• Video report by ITV Wales reporter Issa Farfour

A Ukrainian woman who fled to Wales with her four-year-old son has pleaded with the west to do more to help her country.

Liliia has sought refuge with her sister Gulzara in Corwen but she says she is desperate to go back to Ukraine when it's safe to do so. 

Her husband has had to stay in Ukraine as men are currently not allowed to leave and instead must help the war effort.She said: "We would like to go home. We just need a safe place for now. Please give Ukrainian people a safe environment, a safe place to stay for now until we would like to go home back."

Home Secretary Priti Patel was urged to do more to make it easier for Ukrainians to find sanctuary in the UK after announcing a limited series of changes to the visa regime.

From Tuesday many Ukrainians will be able to apply online for permission to come under the scheme allowing family members to be reunited with relatives already settled in the UK.

But organisations such as the British Red Cross and the Refugee Council have say these changes don't go for enough and believe the quickest way of fixing the problem would be to remove the requirement for a visa.

Ministers have insisted that visa checks are required to make sure Russian President Vladimir Putin does not send Russian agents posing as refugees.

But the scale of the humanitarian crisis has led to demands for the UK to take in more Ukrainians, with up to four million people expected to flee the war zone.

So far around 2.2 million people have left in a crisis unseen in Europe since the Second World War.

The Home Office has come under pressure from opposition and Tory MPs - as well as the Ukrainian government - to simplify the system which allows family members of people settled in the UK to join their relatives.

Ms Patel said: "From Tuesday, I can announce that Ukrainians with passports will no longer need to go to a visa application centre to give their biometrics before they come to the UK.

"Instead, once their application has been considered and appropriate checks completed, they will receive direct notification that they're eligible for the scheme and can come to the UK."

While the European Union allows visa-free travel for Ukrainians fleeing the fighting, the UK insisted they are necessary to guarantee security.

Ms Patel told the Commons: "I am in daily contact with the intelligence and security agencies who are providing me with regular threat assessments.

"What happened in Salisbury showed what Putin is willing to do on our soil. It also demonstrated that a small number of people with evil intentions can wreak havoc on our streets."

Ms Patel said she was able to change the visa regime following security agencies' fresh advice.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson backed the need for continued checks.

He told reporters: "I think people do understand that when you have got large numbers of people leaving from a war zone - some of them still armed, perhaps not all of their identities completely clear, their motivations completely clear - it is responsible to have checks."

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper, whose urgent question resulted in Ms Patel's appearance in the Commons, said the Government's approach had been "shameful".

The current visa route is restricted to family members of people settled in the UK.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said: "The Home Office approach to visas has been the complete opposite, a complete shambles that is diminishing our reputation across the world."

First Minister Mark Drakeford has called for the Home Office to be stripped of its responsibility for helping Ukrainian refugees come to the UK.

During a meeting of the Commons Welsh Affairs Select Committee, Mark Drakeford said that the UK Government department had a history of "hostile regimes" in dealing with refugees and asylum seekers. 

He told MPs that confusion and delays seen in processing visa applications of those trying to flee the conflict has shown that a special organisation should be put in charge.

He said: “Frankly, putting this in the hands of the Home Office is quite the wrong thing to do, the Home Office with its long history of ‘hostile regimes’ to people coming from elsewhere in the world.

“The responsibility should be taken away from a department that has demonstrated its incapacity to mobilise to meet the response and put in the hands of a dedicated group of people at the UK level, who will do what is necessary to allow those people driven from their own homes and who temporarily in many cases wish to have sanctuary in the United Kingdom, to make sure that the actions of our government match the wishes of our people.”

Mr Johnson said that more than a thousand visas have been granted by the UK.

In Ireland - more than 2,500 Ukrainian refugees have already arrived.

Ukrainians seeking to come to the UK have faced a series of bureaucratic hurdles and difficulties in obtaining appointments to complete the necessary paperwork and armed forces minister James Heappey said British troops could help in processing claims.

Officials say that Capacity has expanded to 13,000 applications a week, additional staff have been deployed across the European Union and a helpline has been set up.