Germany is seeing an increase in the number of young men from Ukraine. The influx of Ukrainians aged 18-22 was recorded after Kyiv’s decision in August to allow this age group to travel abroad. This is reported by Barron’s.
Since September, an average of more than 1,000 people have arrived in Germany each week, and as of October 6, this figure has increased to 1,796 people per week. At the end of August, before the introduction of the new rules, there were only 138. The Ministry of Internal Affairs noted that this could be a “phase of increased migration after the new border crossing rules” and that “the number of young men seeking protection may decrease again”.
“A lot of young men are considering coming to Germany. They would be better off staying in their own country when it comes to military service there”, said Markus Söder, Prime Minister of the southern German state of Bavaria.
According to the UN, since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, more than 5.6 million Ukrainians have found refuge abroad, most of them in European countries. More than a million of them have moved to Germany.
As a reminder, in September, Polish border guards recorded a sharp increase in the number of Ukrainians aged 18–22 who entered Poland – the figure increased more than 10 times. Also, compared to August, the number of those who left Poland increased by 3.5 times.
