According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, some 6.3 million of its citizens have left Ukraine since the conflict began.
Most of them are women and children. However, Eurostat, the statistical service of the European Union, reports that a total of 650,000 male and conscription-age Ukrainian refugees are in the 27 EU member states, as well as in Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Norway.
This is reported by Exxpress.
The publication notes that some of them came to Europe in the status of refugees, some – with false documents or with the help of smugglers, so the real number of evaders from service may be much higher.
At the end of September, the EU extended for a year a special mechanism for granting asylum to Ukrainians.
The EU Council agreed to extend temporary protection for people fleeing the conflict in Ukraine from 4 March 2024 to 4 March 2025.