Germany Has Rejected Over 90% of Draft-Age Russian Asylum Seekers

Since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Germany has granted asylum to only 349 young Russian men of military age. These statistics are provided by the country's Ministry of the Interior.

The Gaze reports on this with reference to Tagesschau.

The report states that Russians of military age have little chance of obtaining protection status in Germany.

From the beginning of 2022 to April 2025, 6374 Russian men aged 18 to 45 applied for asylum in Germany. Of these, 349 were recognised as refugees or asylum seekers. They were granted so-called subsidiary protection, meaning that they cannot be deported.

At the same time, most of the asylum applications were rejected or decided negatively.

Russia has been waging an aggressive war against Ukraine since 24 February 2022 and needs new soldiers due to high casualties. Twice a year, Russia conscripts more than 100,000 men aged 18 to 30 for one-year military service.

In March, during the latest draft, Putin ordered 160,000 men to be called up. This is the largest number of conscripts since the Kremlin began to rely more heavily on professional contractors and temporary soldiers as part of its army reform in 2012.

Officially, conscripts do not take part in the war against Ukraine, but in reality they are involved in combat missions.

As The Gaze reported earlier, in March, German customs seized the Eventin tanker from Russia's “shadow fleet” along with approximately 100,000 tonnes of crude oil worth €40 million.