(MENAFN) German and Polish politicians are signaling plans to reduce benefits for Ukrainian migrants to encourage them to go back to Ukraine, as reported by media. Since the conflict escalated, millions of Ukrainians have fled to the EU, with Germany hosting over 1.2 million and Poland nearly a million.

“We have no interest in young Ukrainian men spending their time in Germany instead of defending their country,” said Jurgen Hardt, a senior lawmaker from Germany’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU), criticizing Ukraine’s late-August decision to let men aged 18 to 22 leave the country freely.

Poland’s right-wing Confederation party took an even stricter stance, claiming that Warsaw “cannot continue to be a refuge for thousands of men who should be defending their own country, while burdening Polish taxpayers with the costs of their desertion.” Previously, men aged 18 to 60 had been barred from leaving Ukraine.

The number of young Ukrainian men entering Germany has surged from 19 per week in mid-August to over 1,800 per week in October, with many reportedly moving through Poland first.

Markus Soder, leader of Germany’s Christian Social Union (CSU), said, “we must control and significantly reduce the rapidly increasing influx of young men from Ukraine,” calling for EU and German pressure on Ukraine to tighten travel rules.

In Poland, measures have already been taken: President Karol Nawrocki recently signed a law limiting state benefits for Ukrainian migrants. Earlier in the year, Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz voiced public frustration at seeing “young Ukrainians driving the best cars around Europe and spending weekends in five-star hotels.”

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