Czechia Stops Granting Temporary Protection to Ukrainian Men of Conscription Age

As of Wednesday, Czechia has stopped granting temporary protection to Ukrainian men of conscription and reserve age — from 23 to 60 years old. This was announced by Interior Minister Lubomír Metnar (ANO), who noted that the government has long supported such a restriction.

The change was agreed upon by EU member states: the amendment was published in the Official Journal of the EU on Tuesday and took effect the following day. Under Ukrainian law, men aged 23 to 25 are barred from leaving the country as reservists, while men aged 25 to 60 are barred as being liable for military service.

“Applicants will need to confirm their compliance with military service obligations through the Reserv+ app before they can be granted temporary protection,” explained Interior Ministry spokeswoman Adela Dittmannová.

The new rule will not affect men of conscription age who were granted protection before the change took effect — that is, before this Wednesday. Their status remains valid until March of next year, after which it can be extended for another year.

According to the Interior Ministry, relative to its population size, Czechia remains the EU country that has taken in the largest number of refugees from Ukraine. The ministry has repeatedly stated that its capacity to accommodate refugees is nearly exhausted, and any significant new influx would exceed it.

“This decision will reduce the number of new arrivals by tens of percent. This will ease the burden on our resources, which in turn will lighten the load on the Czech healthcare and social welfare systems,” Metnar said.

Czechia currently hosts more than 393,000 refugees from Ukraine. For a long time, women made up the majority of them, but last year saw a shift for the first time: more men than women began arriving from the war-torn country.

The number of women aged 18–65 has remained virtually unchanged over the past twelve months — there are currently more than 160,280 such women in Czechia, roughly 500 fewer than a year ago. The number of men in the same age bracket, however, has grown noticeably — by more than 21,200 people, reaching 132,000.

Read also: Extending temporary protection in Czechia for Ukrainians

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz