The Chairman of the Christian Social Union (CSU) and Prime Minister of the Federal State of Bavaria, Markus Söder, believes that it is necessary to consider the possibility of returning Ukrainians fit for military service from Germany to their homeland.
“Peace is not yet in sight. Therefore, it is completely legitimate to consider the possibility of returning Ukrainians fit for military service to their homeland in order to ensure security in their country“, Söder said in an interview with the newspaper “Rheinische Post“. At the same time, he stressed that the share of working Ukrainians in Germany is significantly lower than in other European countries due to the payment of social benefits to them. "This needs to change urgently, and not only for recently arrived Ukrainians," he said.
There are currently over 1.25 million Ukrainians in Germany. About 700,000 of them, according to German authorities, receive the so-called citizen's benefits (Bürgergeld), which are paid to them unlike asylum seekers from other countries, and about 480,000 are of working age.
On August 3, the newspaper “Bild“ reported that Germany spent a record 46.9 billion euros on citizen's benefits in 2024. Of this, 22.2 billion euros went to people without German passports, and foreign recipients of “Bürgergeld“ were mostly Ukrainians. In 2024, they were paid about 6.3 billion euros.