Europe expects another 10 million Ukrainian refugees after Ukraine’s collapse

If Ukraine collapses, the federal government anticipates that another approximately ten million people will leave the country. In this scenario, the vast majority of refugees will head to Western Europe; one of the destination countries will be Germany, writes Die Welt.

According to the UN Refugee Agency UNHCR, more than six million people have left Ukraine since the start of the Russian aggressive war. There are also millions of internally displaced persons in Ukraine itself: according to BMI, there are currently 1.1 million Ukrainian citizens in Germany who entered the country since 2022.

Migration researcher Gerald Knaus shares this assessment: “If Ukraine lost the war, much more than ten million refugees could come to the EU. This is already the largest refugee movement in Europe since the 1940s.” Compared to the mass exodus in the context of the war in Syria, there is a significant difference. Turkey has now closed its border with Syria and built a wall. The EU will not do this regarding Ukraine: “Therefore, if it does not want the number of refugees to increase, it must now help Ukraine win the defensive war.”