Over 8.5 Million Ukrainians Displaced Abroad Since 2014, Ombudsman Warns

Since the start of Russia’s aggression in 2014, 8.5 million Ukrainians have left the country, said the Ukrainian Parliament’s Commissioner for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets.

Lubinets shared the data on Telegram following his participation in the World Ukrainian Summit. 

A staggering global challenge

According to calculations provided by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), more than 5.7 million Ukrainians have fled the country since the beginning of the Russian full-scale invasion in February 2022. However, when aggregating the data from the very beginning of Russian aggression in 2014, the cumulative number of displaced citizens climbing to 8.5 million individuals.

“This is a global challenge that requires coordinated actions,” Lubinets stated.

The Ombudsman emphasized that the primary legal mechanism for safeguarding these millions must remain the international status of temporary protection. He argued that this legal framework must remain fully active until all active combat operations within Ukraine come to a complete end, and should place a priority focus on protecting vulnerable categories of citizens.

To support this effort, the Ombudsman’s Office is expanding a network of representatives and advisors abroad to provide direct, on-the-ground legal consultations to Ukrainian nationals.

Condemning the illegal seizure of Ukrainian children

Beyond routine document processing, Lubinets drew attention to a deeply painful category of legal cases emerging in European host countries: the forced removal of Ukrainian children by foreign municipal authorities.

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The Ombudsman highlighted a recent case in Italy, where local authorities seized a Ukrainian child and placed them under the custody of foreign nationals. Lubinets reminded international partners that such actions run directly afoul of global legal norms.

“International humanitarian law explicitly prohibits the adoption of children from countries where a war is ongoing,” Lubinets countered. “We are reacting harshly to such facts and call on international partners to pay attention to this.”

Prerequisites for mass repatriation

While the government in Kyiv anticipates the return of its workforce and families, Lubinets cautioned that simple political appeals would not suffice to spark a mass migration back into the country.

He outlined two non-negotiable benchmarks that the international community must help establish before widespread repatriation can succeed: ensuring returnees are safe from ongoing aerial and ground threats, as well as providing functional infrastructure, as structural destruction leaves millions without homes to return to.

Shifting Debates Within the EU

The Ombudsman’s push to preserve sweeping temporary protection frameworks arrives amid sharpening political debates within host nations. During a recent meeting of EU justice and interior ministers in Luxembourg, member states broadly supported extending the temporary protection mechanism until March 2028. However, the internal architecture of the extension faces intense scrutiny.

According to EU Migration Commissioner Magnus Brunner, the Ukrainian government has requested that the EU consider restricting or excluding military-age men (specifically those aged 23 to 60 who fall within Ukraine’s mobilization parameters) from continuing to access these protection programs.

The debate has fractured the bloc; Germany, Sweden, and Poland favor enacting tighter restrictions on fighting-age Ukrainian men, while Austria has proposed ending their automatic protection as early as March 2027. Conversely, countries like Estonia and Luxembourg oppose major revisions, pushing to extend the system under its current conditions.

As the European Commission prepares to publish its formal legislative proposal regarding the future of the protection regime, Lubinets reiterated that Ukraine must work hand-in-hand with its partners to ensure dignified, stable conditions that grant millions of citizens a realistic opportunity to ultimately rebuild their lives at home.