Russian residents in EU up 13.6% since 2022 invasion, reaching 876,600

The number of Russian citizens legally residing in the EU has grown by 105,000 since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, reaching 876,600 by the end of 2024, according to an analysis of Eurostat data.

The figure represents a 13.6% rise from the 771,800 Russians holding valid temporary or permanent residence permits across EU member states in 2021. Germany hosts the largest community at 218,000, followed by Spain at 116,800 and Estonia at 78,400.

Southern Europe recorded the sharpest growth. Spain issued residence permits to 44,400 Russian nationals over the period, France 13,700, while Cyprus and Portugal saw their Russian-born populations increase 2.5 and 3.5 times respectively.

Several EU states moved in the opposite direction. Latvia, Estonia and the Czech Republic recorded the largest drops, driven by tough migration policies and, in the Baltic states, security concerns over large Russian-speaking communities.

Significant communities have also formed outside the EU. In Serbia the Russian population rose from roughly 5,000 before the invasion to 61,900 by the end of 2024. By spring of this year, Kazakhstan had absorbed more than 107,000 Russian migrants, while Armenia and Georgia hosted 43,500 and 70,000, respectively. Turkey drew large numbers in the immediate post-invasion period but later tightened residency rules; by June, valid Russian permits there had fallen to 75,900, half the 2023 peak.

Researchers tracking emigration patterns have identified at least four distinct waves since February 2022. The most recent, running from this spring, has been sparked by renewed claims of impending mobilisation for Moscow's all-out war in Ukraine.

According to Anastasia Burakova, a lawyer and founder of Kovcheg, a legal assistance project for Russians abroad, everyone now understands "that they have no future in Russia." She added that people see no clear future prospects and expressed concern that "there are risks linked to mobilisation and conscription, which people feel very personally."

Ivan, 19, left Russia this spring to avoid conscription and now works in construction in Yerevan, posting videos on YouTube. A year earlier he had been a mobile phone store manager. "I thought: this is it, this is life, everything is going the way it should," he said in a YouTube video. In that same video, Ivan described his current situation in Yerevan, noting that "I'm sitting on a bench in Yerevan, with no title and no steady job." He explained that his wife is with him and reflected on his contrasting emotional states, saying that back then he was a manager and felt trapped, "but now I have nothing, and I feel free."

Surveys show emigrants are predominantly young couples under 36, with high levels of education, concentrated in professions vulnerable to political repression or in international demand, particularly IT, engineering and academia.