Ukrainian refugee forced to drive car 1,500 miles back to warzone or pay thousands due on ‘ridiculous’ registration fees
A Ukrainian refugee has been forced to drive her car back to a warzone due to ‘bonkers’ UK road laws and eyewatering insurance premiums. Svitlana Yuryeva, 42, fled Putin’s missile attacks on Kyiv in February 2022, driving her daughter, 17, and son, 13, to relative safety in the Zhytomyr region before travelling across the Polish border in their Audi A6.
Having left her husband in tears at the border, she travelled across Poland and Czech Republic to Austria where she stayed for two months before getting sponsored by a family in Wimbledon, South London, through the Homes for Ukraine scheme. Svitlana now works as a finance HR administrator and rents a home in Colliers Wood.
But after a six month grace period which allows the temporary import of vehicles into the UK, Svitlana was forced to drive her family car 1,500 miles back to Ukraine in mid-October 2022, just as another wave of Russian missiles and drone attacks hit major cities across the war-torn country forcing the Ukrainian government to bring in nationwide blackouts.
For Svitlana – who took her children with her as she now refuses to leave them alone – it was this, or face up to £10,000 in hidden conversion fees, a massive insurance premium, and the threat of costly import charges if she was ever to return to Ukraine with a British registered vehicle. As a result of the barriers, only 13% of Ukrainians have managed to complete the permanent import process, according to a survey by London-based charity UKrainian Refugee Help.
Svitlana told MyLondon: “I’m really grateful for everything the British Government has done for us – they did not have to do this – but this car issue. I understand a democratic system is not always perfect, but it would be so much simpler to allow Ukrainian refugees to use the vehicles they came in while they are here.
“I wish it was easier. I thought this issue would have been solved by now so I am surprised it is still there.”
She also acknowledged the “headache” is more acute for refugees living outside London who rely on car transport, and added she was constantly seeing potential refugees asking on Facebook groups what the official Government policy is on car registration before bringing their vehicle. UKrainian Refugee help says Government messaging is “contradictory” and – of those surveyed – 75% still don’t have a clear path to what they can do.
UKraine Refugee Help’s Baljeet Nijjhar holding a letter sent to Rishi Sunak outside the Ukrainian Embassy© Supplied
The Department for Transport says the cost of registering a foreign car in the UK is at least £55, but the actual import process to make left-hand drive cars safe on the UK’s roads costs up to £3000 – though Svitlana says she was quoted £500 – and involves modifying or replacing headlights and speedometer units, and special testing and certification.
Original paperwork may also be surrendered when the car is registered as British, leaving refugees vulnerable to costly re-import duties if they were ever move back to Ukraine. Svitlana claims this would be more than the value of the car due to high import taxes.
And once the car is on UK plates the Ukrainian insurance must be swapped for UK insurance. With some models not recognised on UK databases this can bump insurance premiums up to as much as £5,000.
By contrast, overseas students and workers here for a few years on a similar temporary basis follow a ‘temporary admissions’ process to keep their cars here legally, apparently requiring just a single form for HMRC. A petition to extend the six month grace period for Ukrainian refugees reached over 10,000 signatures and closed on April 24.
