EU temporary protection covers 4.40 million Ukrainians

Some 4.40 million people who fled Ukraine had temporary protection status in the EU in February 2026, according to Eurostat data cited by Euronews. Germany hosted the largest number, followed by Poland and Czechia, while the biggest month-on-month increases were recorded in Germany, Czechia and Spain. Estonia, France and Luxembourg were the only EU countries to register decreases.

The figures underline how the EU’s “temporary protection” regime has turned into a long-running distribution and financing problem rather than a short emergency. Beneficiaries are overwhelmingly Ukrainian citizens—more than 98%—and the profile is skewed toward adult women (43.5%) and children (nearly a third), with adult men just over a quarter, Euronews reports. That composition matters for labour markets and public services: host states are obliged to provide housing support where needed, healthcare and schooling for minors, while the tax base that funds those services depends on how quickly adults can move into work.

At the same time, the system is showing churn. Euronews cites Save the Children research suggesting more than 1.6 million people have returned to frontline areas such as Kharkiv, Donetsk, Kherson and Sumy despite ongoing fighting. In interviews with 172 parents and caregivers, three-quarters said homesickness and isolation in host countries pushed them back; about 55% cited housing costs or difficulty finding work. Nearly half said their children were unhappy, stressed or lonely where they had fled.

The return flow is a reminder that “protection” is not just a legal status but a cost-of-living calculation. When rent, childcare and low-paid work make life in the host country feel like a dead end, the risk premium of going back to a war zone can shrink—especially for families trying to keep social ties intact. For governments, that creates a moving target: school places, municipal housing and welfare budgets must be planned while the population served can rise in one country and fall in another within a month.

Eurostat’s February snapshot leaves the headline distribution unchanged—Germany, Poland and Czechia still carry the largest absolute numbers—but the marginal growth in Spain points to a gradual southward spread as households look for cheaper living costs and seasonal jobs. The legal obligation remains the same across the bloc; the ability to absorb the costs does not.

In February the EU added protection beneficiaries in 24 member states and reduced them in three. The policy is uniform on paper, but the pressure is accumulating in very different municipal balance sheets.