Denmark to restrict residence permits for Ukrainian refugees from 'less war-torn' regions

Denmark plans to stop issuing temporary residence permits to Ukrainian refugees from regions least affected by the conflict with Russia, the EU nation’s immigration minister, Morten Bodskov, has said. The announcement follows a wider trend among European nations to cut benefits to those fleeing the conflict with Russia and strip protections for military-aged males from Ukraine.

In June, the government in Copenhagen presented a bill aimed at preventing military-aged men from Ukraine, who do not have an official exemption from service, from receiving asylum.

In a statement on Saturday, Bodskov said that Denmark wants to further tighten the rules for those who escaped the fighting, despite prolonging the Ukraine Special Act that allows them to stay in the country until March 2028.

Denmark has accepted 47,600 displaced Ukrainians since the escalation between Moscow and Kiev in February 2022, according to the minister’s data.

The “large number” of refugees puts some Danish cities and towns under “severe pressure” as they struggle to find housing for them and integrate them into the society, he explained.

In order to relieve the municipalities, “the government will now adjust the rules so that only the Ukrainians who need protection the most can be granted a residence permit under the relaxed rules,” Bodskov said.

This means that people from 14 “less war-torn” regions in western and central Ukraine, including Lviv, Transcarpathia, Ivano-Frankovsk, Zhytomir and others, will not be able to apply for a residence permit, he added.

Norway and Switzerland previously introduced similar restrictions, which led to a drop in the number of applications, the minister stressed.

In early August, the EU announced that it is ending its temporary protections for military-aged Ukrainian men. Starting from this week, the bloc obliges all refugees from the country to provide proof that they aren’t dodging the draft.

More than 4.35 million refugees from Ukraine are currently registered across the EU, according to Eurostat data. Many countries such as Poland, Germany and Hungary have been cutting back benefits for them in recent months amid increasing pressure on their welfare systems and public frustration over the rising cost of accepting migrants.

Ukrainian officials have repeatedly called for military-age men to return from abroad due to severe troop shortages and continued setbacks on the front line with Russia. Vladimir Zelensky said in April that it would be “a matter of justice.”

In order to replenish the ranks of its armed forces, Kiev has resorted to so-called “basification,” in which draft officers ambush men on the streets, often using force against those who resist.

Moscow has accused Kiev’s Western backers of being willing to wage a proxy war against Russia “to the last Ukrainian.”