French President Emmanuel Macron has condemned Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government for making Ukrainian refugees unwelcome in Britain and for pretending to lead the world in helping the victims of the war, The Guardian reported.

Speaking at the end of an EU summit in Versailles, the French president was eviscerating about Johnson’s approach towards those fleeing Russia’s bombs.

He said that by insisting that visa applications to the UK must be made in person in Brussels and Paris, the British government had imposed additional misery on desperate men, women and children.

Macron accused the British government of failing to live up to its “grand statements”. “I would hope that the Ukrainian men and women who have lived through horror and crossed Europe to reach their families on UK territory will be better treated,” he said.

The searing criticism of the British prime minister came as Russian airstrikes hit three more cities in Ukraine on Friday and tanks and artillery moved to what appeared to be firing positions to the north-west of the capital, Kyiv. Across the country, Ukrainian civilians are being shelled as they seek to flee besieged cities, in what is now the fasting-growing refugee crisis in Europe since the second world war.

In response to Macron's remarks, the British Home Office echoed the words of Home Secretary Priti Patel, who had said that now they are speeding up and simplifying the process by lifting the requirement for physical presence at visa centers for many of those who make the perilous journey to get to the UK through Europe.