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Overview of statistical practice
In Ukraine, the State Migration Service (SMS) publishes the following data regarding international protection: number of asylum applications for refugee status and status of a person in need of complementary protection; figures regarding the decisions of the SMS: granting the status, refusing, cancelling, withdrawing). Number of issued and extended documents: MSID, refugee certificate, and certificate of a person in need of complementary protection. The number of female and male beneficiaries of international protection.
The data is published in the format of a PDF file without the possibility to break it down or disaggregate it. The statistics are accessible on a quarterly and annual basis.
As detailed under Regular procedure, the asylum procedure in Ukraine takes place in two stages, starting with a preliminary stage, at the end of which the authorities either reject the application or decide to proceed with further examination. Data on these two stages is presented in separate tables in the statistics below.
Decisions at the preliminary stage of asylum applications: figures for 2025
|
Total decisions at the preliminary stage in 2025 |
Number of “negative” decisions at preliminary stage |
Number of “positive” decisions at preliminary stage (decisions to send the case to further examination) |
| 58 | 11 | 47 decisions (54 applicants)[1] |
Applications and granting of protection status at first instance, in the further examination procedure: figures for the year 2025 (1)
| Applicants in 2025 (2) | New and ongoing cases throughout 2025[2] | Total decisions in 2025[3] (3) | Total rejections upon further examination | Refugee status | National complementary protection | |
| Total | 61[4] | 729 | 128 | 118 | 1 | 9 |
|
Breakdown by 10 main countries of origin of the total numbers
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||||||
| Russia | 31 | 25[5] | 19 | 12 | 1 | 6 |
| Tajikistan | 9 | 7 | 11 | 11 | 0 | 0 |
| Belarus | 7 | 8 | n/a | n/a | 0 | 1 |
| Nigeria | 3 | 3 | 14 | 14 | 0 | 0 |
| Uzbekistan | 3 | 2 | 6 | 6 | 0 | 0 |
| Syrian Arab Republic | 1 | 1 | 15 | 14 | 0 | 1 |
| Egypt | 1 | 1 | n/a | n/a | 0 | 0 |
| Nepal | 1 | 1 | n/a | n/a | 0 | 0 |
| Afghanistan | 1 | 1 | 31 | 31 | 0 | 0 |
| USA | 1 | 1 | n/a | n/a | 0 | 0 |
Source: SMS statistics for 2025; SMS’ responses to the R2P request for public information, February 2026.
Note 1: statistics on applicants and pending concern people, including children and dependents. The rest of the columns concern a number of decisions.
Note 2: “Applicants in year” refers to the total number of applicants, and not only to first-time applicants.
Note 3: Statistics on decisions cover the decisions taken throughout the year, regardless of whether they concern applications lodged that year or in previous years.
Applications and granting of protection status at first instance, in the further examination procedure: rates for 2025
Please note that these rate calculations do not take into account the negative decisions made at the preliminary stage, as this does not correspond to the general approach to calculating such statistics. At the same time, these figures should be revised in the future to synchronize the statistics.
| Rejection rate | Overall protection rate | Refugee rate | Complementary protection rate | |
| Total | 63% | 37% | 5.3% | 31.6% |
| Russia | 45.8% | 54.2% | 1.7% | 52.5% |
| Tajikistan | 100% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Belarus | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Nigeria | 100% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Uzbekistan | 100% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Syrian Arab Republic | 93.3% | 6.7% | 0% | 6.7% |
| Egypt | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Nepal | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Afghanistan | 100% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| USA | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a |
Source of the percentages: SMS statistics for 2025; SMS’ responds to the R2P request for public information, February 2026.
Gender/age breakdown of the total number of applicants: 2025
| Men | Women | |
| Number | 37 | 24 |
| Percentage | 61% | 39% |
| Adults | Children | ||
| Accompanied | Unaccompanied | ||
| Number | 61 | 0[6] | 0 |
| Percentage | 100% | 0% | 0% |
Source: SMS statistics for 2025; SMS’ responds to the R2P request for public information, February 2026
Note: The gender breakdown (Men/Women) applies to all applicants, not only adults.
First instance and appeal decision rates: 2025
Judicial review is conducted by the system of administrative courts (see Asylum procedure – First appeal):
- 1st instance: District administrative courts – 20 decisions;
- 2nd instance: Appellate administrative court – 10 decisions.
[1] Applications may involve several applicants, as minor children are included in the same application as their parents.
[2] Until 2025, statistical data on the number of persons holding a valid MSID in Ukraine at a specific date was not available. In 2026, for the first time, the SMS provided data on the number of persons holding a valid MSID (asylum seekers).
[3] Breakdown: refugee status (1) + complementary protection (9) + total rejection (118). Moreover, not included in this total, there were decisions of loss (48) and withdrawal (1) of protection.
[4] Applications may involve several applicants, as minor children are included in the same application as their parents. Thus, 61 applicants were combined into 59 applications.
[5] For this column, the SMS reported only the number of applications, rather than the number of individual applicants.
[6] Minor children might be included in the same application as their parents.