Manen (Social Movement)
Social Movement sees the curtailment of Ukrainians’ rights, as well as the reduction in aid to Ukraine as a whole, not only as a threat to our country, but also as a risk of dismantling democratic and people-centred principles that Europe has been fighting for since the mid-20th century
- By Manen
- Post published: 14 September 2026
On 4 March 2022, the Temporary Protection Directive came into force across all EU countries as part of the European Union’s support for Ukraine, aimed at saving the lives of millions of people who were forced to flee the Russian army’s offensive, which was accompanied by looting, rape and killings amongst the civilian population. Ukrainians who were granted temporary protection were promised assistance with housing, labour market integration, social security and financial support.
However, after nearly five years of full-scale war in Ukraine, the domestic policies of a number of EU Member States have recently begun to shift in the opposite direction, turning against Ukraine. Instead of integration and recognition of the years they have spent here, people are being offered ‘self-sufficiency’ tests, cuts to benefits and hints that they should return home, whilst the terror inflicted by Russian troops continues unabated. At the same time, diplomats who are paid from Ukraine’s state budget are showing passivity, leaving people feeling defenceless and disoriented.
What might change in the near future?
In Ireland, the government is preparing to completely phase out long-term support for the residence of around 60,000 Ukrainians by March 2027. At the same time, a draft bill is under discussion whereby years spent under temporary protection will not count at all towards the residence period required for citizenship. Human rights organisations assisting Ukrainian refugees have already described these proposals as an attempt to turn Ireland into a hostile environment for people who make a significant contribution to society.
Whilst the Irish government is openly preparing to leave tens of thousands of Ukrainians without housing and without a path to citizenship, the Ukrainian diplomatic mission in Dublin prefers to turn a blind eye: the Ukrainian Embassy is leaving genuine appeals concerning people with disabilities and cancer untreated. Kyiv’s diplomatic silence is baffling in this situation and appears not as neutrality but as tacit consent, despite cuts to social assistance, unemployment, the lack of a state programme for the development of social housing, and the desire to send back people who are not welcome.
The far-right ‘Alternative for Germany’ (AfD) makes no secret of its intentions and states openly: the abolition of benefits for Ukrainian refugees, the promotion of ‘remigration’, whilst at the same time declaring parts of occupied and frontline Ukraine ‘safe’ for return and pushing for closer ties with Russia, going as far as the resumption of gas supplies via the ‘Nord Stream’ pipeline.
The AfD’s party programme in the federal state of Saxony-Anhalt, where they secured almost 50 per cent of the vote in the 7 September election and will form the state government, goes even further: stripping Ukrainians of their status as war refugees, introducing financial incentives to leave the country, and, on top of that, maintaining and expanding Russian language lessons in schools alongside the resumption of school exchange programmes with Russia. Whilst some Ukrainians are being told to pack their bags, others are already having school desks prepared for pupils from the aggressor country – presumably with quotas for children participating in the so-called ‘special military operation’.
Poland is also consistently scaling back its support: access to social benefits, medical care and state-provided housing is being curtailed. And all this is happening against a backdrop of rising crime rates against Ukrainians.
This trend has not spared Denmark either. At the end of August, the Danish Parliament passed a law restricting access to temporary protection for Ukrainian men aged 23–60 who, under Ukrainian law, are subject to mobilisation and have not been exempted from military service. At the same time, it is important to acknowledge those who opposed it: our Danish comrades from Enhedslisten and Alternativet did not support this decision.
Our comrades from Enhedslisten and Alternativet have shown that supporting Ukraine and protecting the rights of Ukrainians can and must go hand in hand. This is what true international solidarity should look like: not demanding that people give up their right to protection, but fighting to ensure that Ukrainians have a safe life and decent living conditions, regardless of gender.
And although the EU has officially extended temporary protection for Ukrainians until 4 March 2028, explicitly acknowledging that the return of millions of people to their homes still poses a mortal danger, aid to Ukrainian refugees is steadily decreasing.
The rise in popularity of right-wing parties against a backdrop of economic stagnation during the biggest war in Europe since the Second World War comes as little surprise to anyone. But the scale that this new ‘brown wave’ is reaching goes far beyond the bounds of ordinary electoral competition. It threatens not only Ukraine’s defeat. It fuels anti-democratic, anti-European and chauvinistic sentiments capable of calling into question the very achievements upon which the European Union is built as a supranational structure.
After all, the ‘brown plague’ of the 21st century will not always be marching in parades or brandishing radical symbols (although this is already happening everywhere). Today, it is cloaked in diplomatic language, election manifestos, slogans about ‘protecting national interests’ and cynical calculations that cheap Russian gas will make European countries great again.
That is why the issue of Ukrainian refugees today extends far beyond the realm of social policy. The way Europe treats people who have fled Russian aggression shows the extent to which it is itself prepared to defend the human rights, solidarity and democracy it professes.
‘Social Movement’ sees the curtailment of Ukrainians’ rights, as well as the reduction in aid to Ukraine as a whole, not only as a threat to our country, but also as a risk of dismantling the democratic and people-centred principles that Europe has been fighting for since the mid-20th century. If Europe allows fundamental principles of humanity to be cast aside for the sake of dubious political gain, it risks losing its very identity. At the same time, the need for a state that genuinely protects Ukrainians is more acute than ever! It does not call for an end to ‘paternalistic’ expectations of social support, nor does it pander to conservative sentiments; rather, it demands adequate rights for a people suffering from the worst war in Europe in the last 100 years.
Pablo Picasso, Guernica, 1937