London, Mar 9 (IANS): UK Transport Secretary Grant Shapps on Wednesday denied that the UK is lagging behind other European countries when it comes to allowing entry of Ukrainian refugees.

Shapps told the BBC's Today programme that nearly 760 refugees have arrived in the UK so far, lagging behind neighbouring countries, including Ireland, which has accepted more than 2,000 people since the crisis began, the BBC reported.

While he argued that the UK has "massively ramped up" the pace at which it deals with visa applications from Ukrainian refugees, he noted that "we do need to know who is coming to the country".

He added that more than 2,00,000 people are eligible to come to the UK through a family scheme that allows Ukrainians to join relatives in Britain and said, "we have expanded that definition up and up, so it can be aunts and uncles and that sort of thing".

However Shapps said that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has asked that his citizens stay relatively close to home and expressed a desire that they are not "overly distributed around the world".

More than two million people have now fled Ukraine, according to the UN.