News

By its ruling of 23 July 2025, the Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania held that the Migration Department had unjustifiably and unlawfully refused to grant a Ukrainian national a temporary residence permit in the Republic of Lithuania on the basis of temporary protection. The contested decision of the Migration Department therefore had to be annulled.

The applicant stated that, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, she left the country because her flat in Mariupol had been destroyed and, due to the danger she faced, she could not return to Ukraine.

The applicant submitted a request to the Migration Department seeking a temporary residence permit in Lithuania on the basis of temporary protection.

The respondent refused to issue the permit, concluding that the applicant had provided false information, that there were serious grounds to believe she posed a risk of irregular migration, and that she did not meet the conditions for obtaining a temporary residence permit based on temporary protection. The Migration Department argued that the applicant’s relocation to Lithuania had been motivated not by Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine, but by economic reasons: after first settling in Belarus, the applicant allegedly sought better economic living conditions in Lithuania and therefore could not be regarded as a person who had left Ukraine because of the war.

Under the Law on the Legal Status of Foreigners, temporary protection is an immediate, short-term form of protection granted to a foreign national under the conditions laid down in the law, where there is a mass influx of foreigners into the European Union who cannot return to their country of origin, or where such an influx is imminent. A temporary residence permit in Lithuania may be issued to a person on the basis of temporary protection.

Because of the large-scale invasion of Ukraine launched by the Russian armed forces on 24 February 2022, which placed a significant part of Ukraine’s territory in a zone of armed conflict, many residents fled the country. Consequently, on 4 March 2022, the Council of the European Union adopted Implementing Decision (EU) 2022/382, based on Council Directive 2001/55/EC, with the aim of granting temporary protection to Ukrainian nationals residing in Ukraine who had been displaced on or after 24 February 2022 as a result of the Russian military invasion that began on that date.

By decision of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania, temporary protection was granted in Lithuania from 4 March 2022 until 4 March 2026 to persons who, on or after 24 February 2022, had left (been displaced from) Ukraine due to Russia’s military aggression and who were Ukrainian nationals whose place of residence before 24 February 2022 had been in Ukraine. Essentially identical decisions were taken at EU level, with the Council noting that the safe and sustainable return of displaced persons from Ukraine was not possible due to the situation in the country.

Since the applicant was a Ukrainian national and had lived in Ukraine before 24 February 2022, she met the conditions for the granting of temporary protection. She fell within the category of persons displaced from Ukraine on or after 24 February 2022 due to the military invasion launched on that date by the Russian armed forces, and was therefore entitled to temporary protection. The Migration Department did not identify any of the statutory grounds on which temporary protection could be denied. The circumstances emphasised by the Migration Department—such as the applicant’s chosen evacuation route or her earlier periods of residence in Latvia, Poland and Belarus, as well as her explanations regarding her intention to work—did not negate her status as a person entitled to temporary protection under the applicable legal provisions.

Administrative Case No A-2309-520/2025