While the federal government of Nigerian was putting plans in place to evacuate over 5,000 of its citizens stranded in crisis ridden Ukraine, over 100 Nigerians are awaiting visas to travel from Nigeria to Ukraine to join the war and fight against Russian belligerents having registered at the Ukrainian Embassy in Nigeria.
It was learnt that since Ukraine had already shut its airspace, anyone seeking to come into the country will have to use land borders at Romania, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba, had through his verified Twitter handle, asked foreigners to join the war.
“Foreigners willing to defend Ukraine and world order as part of the International Legion of Territorial Defence of Ukraine, I invite you to contact foreign diplomatic missions of Ukraine in your respective countries. Together we defeated Hitler, and we will defeat Putin, too.”
In an interview with Nigeria Standard on Wednesday, the Second Secretary at the Ukrainian Embassy to Nigeria, Bohdan Soltys, said the list of those willing to fight for Ukraine had been sent to Kyiv.
He said, “About 100 people wrote to us and said they would like to do this. We have transferred the information to the Ukrainian government and so far we have not received any feedback and a positive response.”
When asked if women would also be drafted, Soltys stated, “Right now, no.”
He, however, explained that the process may not be as easy for Nigerians since Nigerians need visas to visit most European countries.
“There are also challenges because you cannot fly directly to Ukraine only to those countries bordering Ukraine but some of these people need visas and you need to get in touch with some of these countries. So, it is not like you can apply today and be in Ukraine tomorrow. Nigerians need visas to all the European countries,” he said.
