EU member states agree to extend temporary protection for Ukrainian refugees

The EU has extended for another year - until March 2025 - a special mechanism for granting asylum to Ukrainian citizens.

In order to provide certainty for more than four million Ukrainian refugees currently living in the EU, the EU Council agreed to extend the temporary protection for people fleeing from Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine from March 4, 2024, to March 5, 2025, according to the website of the European Council.

The EU will support the Ukrainian people for as long as it takes. The prolongation of the protection status offers certainty to the more than 4 million refugees who have found a safe haven in the EU.

The temporary protection mechanism was activated on 4 March 2022 – only a few days after Russian armed forces launched a large-scale invasion of Ukraine – and it was automatically extended by one year.