Poland remains the Member State that welcomes the most Ukrainians

In December 2022, Poland remained at the top of the list of EU countries hosting Ukrainian refugees under temporary protection, despite the drop from November, Eurostat announced on Thursday.

In December 2022, Poland granted temporary protection status to 31,860 Ukrainians fleeing war from Russia, followed by Germany (25,110), Romania (11,260) and France (6,070).

Compared to November 2022, the statistical service of the European Union (EU) also reveals, the number of grants of temporary protection has decreased in 21 of the 26 Member States for which data are available, with Germany recording the largest decrease (less than 11,275), followed by Poland (-8,510), Italy (-4,675) and France (-2,765).

On the other hand, the largest monthly increases were observed in Denmark (640), Romania (515) and Ireland (440).

In Portugal, the number of temporary protection statuses granted fell to 895 in December 2022, compared to 965 in the previous month.

As of December 31, 2022, Poland (956,760), Germany (936,375) and the Czech Republic (431,310) had the highest number of Ukrainians under temporary protection since the beginning of the Russian invasion.

The military offensive launched by Russia in Ukraine on February 24, 2022 has so far led to the flight of more than 14 million people – 6.5 million internally displaced persons and more than 7.9 million to European countries -, according to the latest data from the UN, which classifies this refugee crisis as the worst in Europe since World War II (1939-1945).

Currently, 17.7 million Ukrainians need humanitarian aid and 9.3 million need food aid and shelter.

The Russian invasion – justified by the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, with the need to “denazify” and demilitarize Ukraine for Russian security – was condemned by the international community at large, which responded by sending arms to Ukraine and to impose on Russia political and economic sanctions.

The UN presented 7,031 dead civilians and 11,327 wounded as confirmed since the start of the war, underlining that these numbers are far below the real ones.