BRUSSELS, August 20. /TASS/. All refugees arriving in the European Union from Ukraine, both men and women, must prove that they are not evading military service in order to receive temporary protection status, European Commission Spokesman Markus Lammert said at a briefing in Brussels.
"As a matter of fact, the Council decision extending the Temporary Protection Directive came into force earlier this month, in August 2026. This means that the practical assessment of individual cases is for the competent national member states. It is for the national member state authorities to apply the new rules and to do the actual checks which the rules provide for," he said.
"The Council decision does not differentiate between men and women in the application. This is about military service or former military service, so there is no distinction between men and women [provided they are subject to military service]," Lammert added.
Earlier reports said that migration authorities in several EU countries had required certain categories of Ukrainian women, including qualified medical professionals subject to military service under Ukrainian law, to confirm that they were not evading participation in combat operations against Russia.
