Chairman of the European Union Affairs Committee Peeter Tali noted that by continuing to grant temporary protection, European Union Member States wished to help Ukrainians, as currently Ukraine certainly was not a safe place to live peacefully.
“Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine has been ongoing for more than four years already. Putin’s regime is unable to achieve a breakthrough on the front and is therefore continuing its massive terrorist attacks against the people of Ukraine, residential areas of its cities, and vital civilian infrastructure. Russia has used air strikes to make the lives of ordinary people in Ukraine as dangerous as possible, in order to break the Ukrainians’ will to defend themselves,” Tali said.
“One of the greatest military challenges for Ukraine is manning its units on the front and mobilisation, and that is precisely why it is neither reasonable nor fair to grant war refugee status to Ukrainian citizens who should be on the front. This is a fundamental change aimed at supporting Ukraine’s ability to continue defending itself,” Tali said, adding that nothing would change for those Ukrainians who already had been granted temporary protection.
Temporary protection grants war refugees the right to live, work and study, as well as access to social services, in European countries. According to the Implementing Decision, temporary protection will be extended until 4 March 2028. Currently, nearly 4.4 million people who have fled Ukraine enjoy temporary protection in the European Union.
The Government’s positions on extending the application of temporary protection to Ukrainian war refugees were presented at the sitting of the European Union Affairs Committee by Minister of the Interior Igor Taro. The European Union Affairs Committee of the Riigikogu decided to approve the positions by consensus.