British royal family providing accommodation to Ukrainians: report

The British royal family are reportedly providing accommodation to Ukrainian families who have been forced to flee their homeland.

Members of the royals have vowed to "do their bit" and are housing refugees but the family has "no wish" for publicity, according to the Daily Express newspaper.

Some 53,800 Ukrainian refugees have arrived in the UK under visa schemes, including the Homes for Ukraine programme, which amounts to just over half the number of visas granted.

A Buckingham Palace spokesman told the Express: "We are assisting in a number of ways but will not be commenting further."

It is not known which royals are housing refugees or where the accommodation is being provided, with the palace contacted for further information.

The palace was used to house royal refugees during the Second World War, with Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands as well as Norway's King Haalon and his son Prince Olaf staying there after fleeing the Nazis in 1940.

The reported royal housing of those fleeing the conflict comes days after the minister in charge of Homes for Ukraine called for the scheme to become a model for dealing with future refugee crises.

Lord Harrington, who was drafted in to run the programme in March, told an audience in Westminster on Thursday: "My vision is for this system to be a permanent part of government, so that when refugee crises happen – and unfortunately they do all the time – we have a machinery."

The programme has, however, been criticised for the length of time it has taken for the refugees to reach Britain and the fact that some Ukrainians have reportedly been made homeless after falling out with their hosts.