Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu and Polish Office in Taipei Director Cyryl Kozaczewski display a sign after a news conference on humanitarian aid for Ukraine in Taipei on March 7.
Photo: Ann Wang, Reuters

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday said that it has approved the visas of 19 Ukrainians wishing to visit relatives in Taiwan under a special waiver program launched last month.

Taiwan on March 11 launched the program offering certain Ukrainian nationals visas of between 30 days and six months to assist Ukrainians affected by the Russian invasion.

A large number of naval mines were last month detected in Black Sea coastal areas. Kyiv accused Russia of laying the mines to blockade Ukraine’s sea ports, saying that they were the same type that had been stored at a Sevastopol armory that was seized by the Russian military during its annexation of Crimea in 2014.

The Kremlin in turn accused Ukraine of laying more than 420 mines in the Black Sea to keep Russian warships from reaching its ports.

While neither side has claimed responsibility, drifting mines have appeared in the Bosphorus Strait — a major commercial shipping lane that connects the Black Sea to the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Fishing vessels registered to a number of regional nations, including Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey and Ukraine, have reported discovering mines in the Bosphorus, which led to the waterway being temporarily closed at the end of last month.