The number of Ukrainian-born citizens residing in the U.K. increased dramatically following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022; the U.K. has issued 260,800 visas to Ukrainian refugees as of July 2024.
In Manchester, the first documented evidence of Ukrainians was an entry in the Aliens Register in Salford of J. Koyetsky from Brody (then in the Austrian Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria) in 1897.
[1] In 1931, Bishop Andrey Sheptytsky and Fr Josyf Slipyj, each of whom in turn in later years became head of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, made a notable pastoral visit to Manchester.
After World War II, work-permit schemes issued under the Attlee government (1945-1951) recruited Ukrainians to work in the mills of Lancashire and in the greenhouses of the Lea Valley (Middlesex/Essex).
After the end of World War II, more large numbers of Ukrainians (mainly displaced persons from camps in Germany) arrived in the UK.