The number of people who fled Ukraine due to the war and are under temporary protection in the countries of the European Union decreased in September 2026. The largest decline was recorded in Poland, but it is mainly related to changes in administrative accounting, not a mass departure of Ukrainians.
This is evidenced by Eurostat data published on November 10.
As of September 30, temporary protection in the EU was held by 4.37 million people who left Ukraine due to the Russian invasion. Compared to the end of August, their number decreased by 61,055 people, or 1.4%.
The largest number of temporary protection beneficiaries is registered in Germany - 1,300,070 people, which is 29.7% of the total in the EU. In second place is Poland - 858,545 people (19.6%), in third place is the Czech Republic - 391,720 people (9%).
At the same time, the number of protection beneficiaries increased in 25 of the 27 EU countries. The largest increase was recorded in Germany - by 5,515 people, Romania - by 3,900, and Italy - by 2,505.
The decline was observed in only two countries. In Poland, the number of registered temporary protection beneficiaries decreased by 80,850 people, or 8.6%. In the Czech Republic, the figure decreased by 6,640 people, or 1.7%.
Eurostat separately explained the significant decline in the indicator in Poland. According to the statistical office, it is mainly related to administrative changes - the transition of a portion of people to regular temporary residence permits and the removal of inactive records from registers.
Eurostat emphasizes that EU countries apply different approaches to removing people from records. If information in registers is not updated constantly but periodically, this can cause sharp monthly fluctuations in statistics.
Therefore, the decrease in the number of registered temporary protection beneficiaries does not mean that an equivalent number of people left Poland or returned to Ukraine. The statistics reflect changes in the accounting of legal status, not directly the number of border crossings.
In terms of the ratio of temporary protection beneficiaries to the population, the first place among EU countries is occupied by the Czech Republic - 35.9 people per thousand inhabitants. It is followed by Slovakia (28) and Cyprus (27.4). The average for the European Union is 9.7 people per thousand inhabitants.
Ukrainian citizens account for 98.5% of all temporary protection beneficiaries in the EU. Among registered persons, 44.1% are adult women, 27.9% are adult men, and another 28% are minors.
We remind you that the European Union extended the temporary protection mechanism for people who fled Ukraine due to the war until March 4, 2028.
