Eurostat: 76 385 people who fled war in Ukraine had temporary protection in Bulgaria in July 2026
A total of 76 385 people who had fled the war in Ukraine had temporary protection in Bulgaria in July 2026, European Union statistics agency Eurostat said on September 10.
In March 2022, soon after the start of Russia’s full-scale illegal invasion of Ukraine, the figure for those in Bulgaria under the EU’s temporary protection system was 30 694, according to Eurostat.
This rose to 162 980 in July 2023, dropped to 60 220 in July 2024 and rose to 69 370 in July 2025.
Eurostat said that as of July 31 2026, a total of 4.43 million non-EU citizens who fled Ukraine had temporary protection status in the EU. Compared with the end of June 2026, the number of people from Ukraine under temporary protection increased by 19 945 (0.5 per cent), Eurostat said.
The EU countries hosting the highest number of beneficiaries of temporary protection from Ukraine were Germany (1 290 225 people; 29.1 per cent of the EU total), Poland (953 060; 21.5 per cent) and Czechia (395 225; 8.9 per cent).
Compared with the end of June 2026, the number of people under temporary protection increased in 23 of the 26 EU countries with available data, with the three largest absolute increases observed in Czechia (+4 415; 1.1 per cent), Romania (+4 055; 1.9 per cent) and Germany (+3 995; 0.3 per cent).
The three countries that registered decreases were Poland (-8 110; -0.8 per cent), France (-475; -1.0 per cent) and Cyprus (-110; -0.4 per cent).
The highest ratios of temporary protection beneficiaries per thousand people were observed in Czechia at 36.2, Slovakia (27.5) and Cyprus (26.7), compared with 9.8 at EU level.
On July 31 2026, Ukrainian citizens represented over 98.5 per cent of the beneficiaries of temporary protection in the EU. Adult women made up 43.4 per cent of the total, adult men 27.1 per cent, and minors almost one-third (29.4 per cent) of all beneficiaries.
Of those in Bulgaria in July 2026, a total of 75 975 were citizens of Ukraine, 225 citizens of Russia and 65 citizens of Moldova. The remainder were citizens of other countries.
On June 13 2025, the European Council adopted the decision to extend the temporary protection for these people from March 4 2026 to March 4 2027.
