In the first months after February 24, 2022, Ukrainian refugees in Germany had a clear "portrait": women with children. Now the statistics look different.
According to data from the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees of Germany (BAMF), as of May 30, 2026, the country was home to 1,348,258 Ukrainians, including 355,745 men aged 18–63. A year earlier, in early March 2025, there were 297,660 such men. The increase is approximately 58,000 over 16 months.
What matters is not the absolute number, but the structure of new arrivals. As reported by Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland citing the same BAMF data, 60% of everyone who entered Germany since the beginning of 2025 are men of military age. This is a fundamental shift: in the first years of the full-scale war, men were in the minority in this statistic.
How they left legally
The border is closed for most conscript-age men in Ukraine — but not for all. Current legislation provides legal grounds: reserved status, guardianship of children or incapacitated relatives, health conditions, education. In late August 2025, the government of Yulia Sviridenko added another category — men aged 18–22 were given the right to leave without additional permits. According to the prime minister, the decision was meant to "maintain ties with Ukraine" for those already abroad.
It is precisely this change that, according to TSN's assessment, significantly influenced the dynamics: among new arrivals there are disproportionately many young men.
Berlin is concerned — and says so openly
"They are needed in Ukraine"
— Chancellor Friedrich Merz, November 13, 2025, during a phone call with Zelenskyy
According to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Merz asked the Ukrainian president to take measures to prevent men from coming to Germany in large numbers. Government spokesman Stefan Kornelius clarified the position: Berlin "cannot be interested in Ukraine losing human potential." According to Kornelius, Zelenskyy shares this concern — however, Kyiv has not taken public action yet.
In parallel, Berlin is discussing canceling automatic protection for Ukrainian men of military age — a mechanism that currently gives them the right to social benefits and legal residence without individual case review.
What this means in practice
- 356,000 men is approximately every fourth Ukrainian in Germany, and the proportion is growing.
- Most of them came legally, but "legality" is determined by Ukrainian rules that Berlin does not control.
- If Germany cancels automatic protection, men will have to prove individual threats — a standard that most of them do not meet by definition.
The real question is not whether these men are "traitors." The question is what will happen to those 356,000 if Berlin really changes the protection rules: is Ukraine institutionally ready for their return — with procedures, without mass detentions at the border, and without a collapse of the TCC — and does Zelenskyy have the political will to do this publicly?
