A British mother of one has secured a visa for her best friend, from Ukraine, after spending 12 days on hunger strike.
Rend Platings, of Cambridge would host her friend Kristina Korniiuk, 34, of Kyiv, who has now been granted a visa under the Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme.
Platings said the visa application was made within minutes of the scheme opened in March.
She started a hunger strike on April 1 after hearing nothing except an acknowledgement, stating that the “delay in issuing visas is adding to an already appalling humanitarian crisis.”
The charity chief executive ended her hunger strike on Tuesday, after Korniiuk’s visa was granted, but said she said she will continue to campaign in other ways as more people await visas.
Platings said “it feels amazing that Korniiuk can come to Britain. It’s long overdue but I feel really relieved that she now is able to come.’’
Platings, who has painted her home in the colours of the Ukraine flag in a show of support for friends in the country, said her eight-year-old daughter Samantha “screamed with joy” when she learned Korniiuk’s visa had been granted.
“She cried with joy, she was so happy about it,” she said. I’m really relieved about it and Kristina, I spoke to her, she rang me straight after I got the news, she’s delighted.
“She thinks it must be my hunger strike that brought it about more quickly as there are lots of people still waiting. It’s a shame we had to go through all of this and there are people still waiting.”
The 1.7-metre tall mother said she was “really sick” during her hunger strike and dropped from 64 to 54 kilogrammes in weight.
Describing how she kept going, she said: “I was just thinking, she’s there in a difficult situation, it’s unbearable for her to be waiting for a long time so I can tolerate this until at least she gets her visa.”
Platings said she may go to Ukraine to help her friend travel to Britain as she said Korniiuk is “quite broken.”
Korniiuk is currently in the city of Yaremche, in the west of Ukraine, having fled Kiev, and has relatives in the Donbass who want to stay.
Platings said she hopes Korniiuk will be able to join her in Cambridge within a week to 10 days.
She added it is a “difficult decision” for Korniiuk to leave as she does not know if she will see her family again.
