While the war in Ukraine continues, the number of Ukrainian men aged 18 to 63 present in Germany has risen sharply over the past year. According to data from the Foreigners Central Register (AZR) provided by the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) to “Welt am Sonntag”, 1,340,362 people who entered Germany in connection with the conflict were registered on March 9, 2026. Of those, 349,520 were men and 500,393 were women in the same age bracket. A year earlier, on March 8, 2025, the same age group of men had been recorded at 297,660, meaning their number grew by roughly 52,000. For comparison, women in the 18‑to‑63 age range increased by just under 24,000 during the same period.
These figures are politically sensitive. For many Ukrainian citizens travel restrictions have been in place since the nationwide mobilisation order, initially covering men aged 18 to 60. In the summer of 2025, the Ukrainian government eased some of those regulations, allowing young men up to 22 years old to leave the country. Nonetheless, men continued to arrive. In February, the central registration system “FREE” recorded 8,783 Ukrainian asylum seekers from the federal states, of whom 4,392 were male refugees, including minors.
“Militarily eligible young men from Ukraine do not belong in Germany’s social security system” said Alexander Throm, the interior policy spokesperson for the CDU parliamentary caucus, to “Welt am Sonntag”. The federal government is currently in discussions with Ukraine on the issue. Throm noted that other European states, such as Poland, have already adjusted their support for Ukrainian refugees and urged a “fair distribution of Ukrainian refugees within Europe”. The AfD criticises what it calls an “over‑performance” of German benefits for Ukrainians, a stance that Gottfried Curio, a party politician, also calls for revision.
In contrast, the Left party expressed empathy for the fleeing population. Clara Bünger, an interior expert and member of the Left, said, “Hundreds of thousands of soldiers have been killed on both sides. I understand anyone who seeks safety by fleeing this massacre”.
The Greens see the acceptance of Ukrainian refugees as an investment in the future. Robin Wagner, the Green’s European eastern policy spokesperson, explained that “those who learn and work here today can help rebuild Ukraine tomorrow. It is therefore in our European interest to give these people opportunities”.