Germany will not withdraw refugee status from Ukrainian men

The German Interior Ministry has assured that the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry's decision to temporarily suspend consular services for male citizens aged 18-60 who are abroad will not affect their refugee status in Germany. DW reports that.

I am sure that this will not affect the status of refugees from Ukraine, who are in need of protection, regardless of whether we are talking about women, who are the vast majority among such refugees, or men, - said the official spokesman for the Interior Ministry of Germany Maximilian Kall.

Ukrainian refugees have such temporary protection in all European Union countries because they were forced to flee their homeland to escape Russian aggression, Kall added at a government press conference in Berlin.

At the same time, neither he nor a spokesman for the German foreign ministry wanted to comment on Kyiv's very decision to stop consular services for Ukrainian men of conscription age who are also in Germany, among others.

This is a sovereign decision of Ukraine, which I cannot comment on behalf of the German Foreign Ministry," a spokesman for the ministry, Christian Wagner, said.

Yesterday, Polish Defence Minister Vladyslav Kosyniak-Kamysh said that his country was ready to help Ukraine, if necessary, to return its men of conscription age to help in the war against Russia.

His statement came against the background of the suspension of consular services for Ukrainian men of conscription age (from 18 to 60 years old), as well as the ban on issuing foreign passports outside Ukraine according to the government's decision.

We shall remind you that on 23 April it became known that all diplomatic institutions of Ukraine temporarily stopped providing consular services to men of conscription age. The restrictions will be in place until new rules are established in accordance with the updated law on mobilisation. The decision on the restriction is related to the adoption of the new law on mobilisation, which will come into force on 18 May 2024.

Men aged 18 to 60 years abroad will not be able to obtain a passport of a citizen of Ukraine or a foreign passport. Now these documents can only be obtained at a territorial body or territorial subdivision of the Migration Service.

Temporary protection has been granted to 812,000 Ukrainian men aged 18 to 64 since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion in the EU countries. Also adult men received refugee status in Moldova - 22 thousand and Great Britain - 31 thousand. In total, 865,000 men from Ukraine are abroad, of whom about 688,000 are of working age.