Germany has backed the lifting of temporary protection for Ukrainian men — Handelsblatt

German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt has called for an end to the automatic granting of temporary protection to Ukrainian men of conscription age arriving in European Union countries.

He made this statement during a meeting of EU interior ministers in Luxembourg.

According to Dobrindt, Germany supports extending the Temporary Protection Directive for Ukrainian citizens, but has doubts about the appropriateness of applying it to men of conscription age.

In such a case, men aged 23 to 60 arriving in the EU could undergo the standard asylum procedure, which involves an individual review of each case.

The minister also noted that in recent months there has been an increase in the number of Ukrainian men of conscription age entering EU countries.

At the same time, he emphasized that the proposed changes would apply only to men arriving in the EU in the future and would not affect Ukrainians already under temporary protection.

Currently, there are about one million Ukrainian citizens living in Germany who arrived after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.

Source: Handelsblatt.

In total, there are now more than 4.33 million displaced persons from Ukraine in the EU, writes Welt.

As a reminder, Poland is calling for a review of EU protection for Ukrainian men of draft age.