British government announces plan to allow residents to sponsor refugees.

As the humanitarian toll in Ukraine intensifies, the British government announced on Monday a program for British residents to sponsor Ukrainian refugees, amid widespread criticism of the country’s limited pathways for those fleeing the war.

Introduced three weeks after the invasion began, the program, called “Homes for Ukraine,” offers a new route for Ukrainian refugees to come to Britain, which had previously been limited to those joining family members already living there.

The war in Ukraine has resulted in what the United Nations has described as the fastest-growing refugee crisis since World War II. So far, 2.8 million refugees have fled the country, with a majority heading to bordering countries such as Poland, Hungary and Slovakia.