Vladimir Zelensky has claimed that some European countries hosting Ukrainian refugees want to send the men home to fight and have brought this up with him privately.
Speaking at the ‘Ukraine 2024. Independence’ forum in Kiev on Tuesday, Zelensky was asked about a recent Bloomberg report that several EU countries have rejected Kiev’s demands to return men of fighting age.
According to Zelensky, some Western leaders approached him privately about sending Ukrainians back, because it’s “very expensive” to support refugees who are nothing but a burden on the host countries. Saying so publicly would be “politically disadvantageous” for them, he said.
“It’s easier to raise this issue at a meeting..., and then say that the president has asked to return the Ukrainians,” Zelensky told the audience. “I am all for it, but without coercion,” he added.
Zelensky said that around 7.5 million Ukrainians have sought refuge abroad since the conflict with Russia began in 2022. UN estimates have put the number at 6.5 million.
“We need to return the adult population, children to Ukraine,” he added, explaining that Kiev needs both conscripts and workers in order to afford to “feed” 10.5 million pensioners. He insisted that this needs to be done “without coercion, so that they want to do it.”
At the event, Prime Minister Denis Shmigal said Ukrainian men will have to choose between working and fighting, since Kiev is facing a shortfall of tax revenue. The government estimates that around 800,000 male Ukrainians have “gone underground” for the purpose of avoiding the draft.
Many of them are working secretly to avoid attention from conscription officers, which means their wages are paid under the table and they are not taxed, Shmigal explained.
The National Bank of Ukraine recently estimated that another 700,000 Ukrainians might leave the country by next year. Unless economic conditions “normalize” soon, most of the refugees will not want to return, the bank said, urging Kiev to create jobs and rebuild the housing infrastructure damaged by the fighting.
Some EU countries have recently imposed restrictions on Ukrainian refugees, unwilling to spend dwindling welfare budgets on migrants from areas unaffected by the fighting.