Germany could share data on Ukrainian draft-age men with Kyiv

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul proposed sharing residency and welfare data on military-age Ukrainian men in Germany, so Kyiv could contact them about conscription. The move is voluntary and the process would be “without coercion,” per Politico and Bild. It touches the raw nerve of mobilisation as Ukraine nears five years of war.

Bottom line — Berlin holds data on approximately 328,000 male Ukrainian citizens aged 18–60, per UkrMedia.

Go deeper (8)

• Wadephul told Bild that Berlin knows “who lives here, who receives social benefits, who is registered with local authorities, who holds residence status,” per The Kyiv Independent.
• Around 450,000 Ukrainian men have temporary residency in Germany, per Politico citing 2025 official data. A broader 1.17 million adult Ukrainian men have EU temporary protection, according to the same source.
• The proposal comes after the EU banned fighting-age men from new refugee applications in July, citing Ukraine’s “evolving military needs,” per the same article.
• Ukraine’s martial law prohibits men aged 25–60 from leaving the country, per Politico. President Zelenskyy has called returning fighting-age men “a matter of fairness,” Reuters reported in April.
• Wadephul also said Berlin wants Ukraine to place more defence orders with German companies, per Meduza. “We are not entirely satisfied with the volume of orders,” he told Bild.
• German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius separately pledged additional PAC-2 interceptors, AIM-9 missiles, and IRIS-T systems to Ukraine, per The Kyiv Independent.
• Critics and draft offices in Ukraine face accusations of forced conscription and ill-treatment of conscripts, The Kyiv Independent noted in its coverage.
• No legal framework for the data exchange has been publicly defined, according to UkrMedia, which also noted that Germany does not know how many of the registered men are actually subject to service.

Read the reporting