The UK has issued 9,500 visas to Ukrainian relatives of people in the UK as they flee the Russian invasion, Sajid Javid has told Sky News.

A week ago, the government said 4,000 visas had been issued under the Ukraine Family Scheme, which allows refugees with family in the UK to apply to live in the country.

The health secretary said: “I think some 9,500 visas have been issued with the hosting a Ukrainian family scheme.”

He added that more than 150,000 people in the UK have registered their interest in the Homes for Ukraine scheme, a second programme that allows people without family connections to host Ukrainians in their homes for at least six months.

Mr Javid said the process of matching people has started. Most of the refugees are women and children as Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on all men to stay to fight.

The latest UN data, from 19 March, shows 3,389,044 Ukrainians have fled the country since Russia invaded.

More than two million of them have gone to neighbouring Poland, the data shows.

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The UK has been criticised for not lifting security checks on refugees fleeing Ukraine but over the weekend Home Secretary Priti Patel said visa checks would remain because of the threat of Russian spies exploiting the situation.

Mr Javid said he supports her position, adding: “We know the Russians have done that. They did it in 2018, when I had her job, and we saw in our country Russian agents came here with a deadly nerve agent, a chemical weapon, and they used it in Salisbury.

“And we know it killed people. And Russia was directly responsible for that.

“They infiltrated our country with agents, with a chemical weapon and used it. And so it is right that there are some level of security checks.

“We also know that extremists and extremist organisations operate in that region. Of course, the level of security checks has to be proportionate to the issues that we’re dealing with.”

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