the times | Tuesday April 5 2022 13News
Ukrainian women seeking safety in the
UK say they have been sent explicit
images by men exploiting the Homes
for Ukraine programme.
Women who posted on Facebook
groups set up to connect refugees with
British households said they had also
been verbally abused by men.
They added that messages they had
received from men on Facebook’s Mes-
senger app had deterred them from
coming to Britain.
One woman, said: “I’ve had several
men send me abuse, calling me a whore
and nasty things about my photos.”
Another said that after she posted on
a Facebook group men started sending
her explicit pictures on Messenger. “It’s
put me off coming to the UK to be hon-
est,” she said.
One woman said she received
“creepy” messages from single men
inviting her to move in with them.
A screenshot of one of the conversa-
tions involved an engineer who lives in
London sending a Ukrainian woman a
message starting with the words: “I am
single, I live alone.” He then asked:
“Where do u live, where are u now?”
Some Ukrainian women are so des-
perate for accommodation in Britain
that they have posted on Facebook
groups offering to work as housekeep-
ers for nothing.
Anton Ievsiushkin, who is originally
from Mariupol but has lived in Sheffield
for eight years, said: “I’m very con-
cerned about the situation with this
Homes for Ukrainians programme and
how open it is to abuse, particularly the
part about matching refugees and
sponsors. Distressed single mothers
and young girls posting on public Face-
book groups, opening themselves to
various abuse and potential exploita-
tion by human traffickers.”
He proved how easy it was to find out
the personal details of refugees and
where they are moving to in the UK. It
took him only three hours to find aExplicit photos sent
to refugee women
looking for shelter
Matt Dathan Home Affairs Editor refugee’s passport details, their UK
host’s address and a copy of a driving li-
cence and even the name of the house-
hold’s dog.
One of the groups that has been used
to target women is called “UK accom-
modation for Ukrainian refugees”.
Anybody can join the group and it has
almost 50,000 members.
Facebook said it could not remove
the group because it “doesn’t violate our
community standards”.
Last night the company said it was
looking into cases where women had
been sent unsolicited explicit material
to ensure all refugees could feel safe
using its platforms to connect with
hosts. It said it had policies against har-
assment, which includes sending multi-
ple unwanted messages to someone
who has made it clear they do not want
to receive them.
The Facebook group is full of stories
of refugees fleeing Ukraine. One mes-
sage posted yesterday is from three
women in their 20s looking for a UK
home. “We’re best friends and looking
for a person or family who are ready to
host us. We are ready to help with
housekeeping and going to find a job.
“We are very pet friendly and love
children. We are decent and do not
have any bad habits. We would sincere-
ly appreciate any offers,” they wrote.
The Department for Levelling Up,
Housing and Communities said that all
households accommodating Ukrainian
refugees would receive visits from the
local authority to check that the prop-
erty and household was “fit for pur-
pose” and suitable to receive guests.
A spokesman said: “We have de-
signed our Homes for Ukraine scheme
specifically to have safeguards in place,
including robust security and back-
ground checks on all sponsors, both by
the Home Office and councils.
“Registering your expression of in-
terest in becoming a sponsor does not
mean an individual has passed security
checks, and all sponsors must go
through these checks.”Tory donor made bust of
Putin before Ukraine war
Charlotte Wace, George Greenwoodin the disputed Donbas region. Inset, Ukrainian women say British men are pestering themNews
A prominent Tory donor who sculpted
a bust of Putin praised him as a “great
leader” whom he admired for his “de-
termination to assert Russian power” in
a video shared by Moscow’s embassy in
London last year.
Nadey Hakim, who has been issued
with the Order of Friendship by Russia,
has given £150,000 to the Conservative
Party in cash and non-cash donations
since 2011. He donated £10,000 most re-
cently in February last year.
The revelation comes as Putin’s inva-
sion of Ukraine has killed thousands
of innocent civilians and forced
millions to leave their homes.
Hakim stressed that his com-
ments had been made before
the war and “do not apply to-
day”, describing the Russian
president’s actions as “complete-
ly unacceptable”.
In the video, Hakim, the
British-Lebanese HarleyStreet surgeon, who also has a role with
the British Red Cross, was showcasing
his sculpture of Putin. He said that “no
matter how controversial, he is still a
diamond in that collection”, describing
him as “one of the most influential
people in the world” who “will leave a
deep print in history”.
He continued: “In my opinion, the
Russian people have chosen a great
leader, confirming his authority time
after time. I admire Putin’s determina-
tion to assert Russian power after years
of perceived underestimation by the US
and its Nato allies..”
At the time of Hakim’s comments,
Putin had been personally impli-
cated by the UK authorities in
relation to chemical and radio-
logical attacks on UK soil and
had ordered Russian troops
into Crimea and the Donbas
region to seize Ukrainian terri-
tory in 2014.
Hakim told The Times:
“Things obviously have
changed and I categori-
cally am against what he
has done and what he is
doing.”Nadey Hakim makes
busts of politicians,
including PutinPHOTOGRAPH: FADEL SENNA/AFP/GETTY IMAGESembassy spy on way to face justice
In his role as a security guard, he had
details of people going in and out of the
British embassy in Berlin but he also
may have been aware of the building’s
security arrangements.
The British authorities requested hisextradition at the end of last year but he
and his lawyer challenged the case.
Yesterday, the state court of Bran-
denburg said that the extradition re-
quest had been accepted. It is thought
the decision was made last month.“myths” about the country. In 2015,
Medinsky called for the creation of a
Russian “patriotic internet” to combat
western ideas,
His neighbours told the newspaper
Bild that they hardly knew him, even
though he had lived in the flat for some
time. They said that he left for work at
6am each morning and returned late at
night; they did not know he worked at
the British embassy.
His arrest raised questions about the
security operation at the embassy, es-
pecially the involvement of private con-
tractors in hiring staff who work at the
office.
Semperian, a private investment
group, owns the lease on the embassy
until 2030 and three other private com-
panies separately run facilities, the
building itself and security.Smith’s lawyer had argued that his
client sees Germany as his home after
living there for about 16 years.
Germany generally carries much
lighter sentences for the sale of state se-
crets than under British law, where
crimes relating to spying and sabotage
carry a sentence up to 14 years in jail.
After Smith’s arrest, the police found
a large Russian flag in the living room of
his two-room ground-floor flat. They
also found a collection of Soviet mili-
tary caps, a small East German flag on
the mantelpiece and a Russian naval
shield on his desk.
His bookshelves were also filled with
volumes of military history as well as
Russian grammar books and a three-
volume set by Vladimir Medinsky, a
former culture minister in the Putin
government, which aimed to dispelDavid Smith will
face magistrates
on Thursday