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 2025, an analysis of Eurostat data shows. 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, with 218,000 residents, followed by Spain (116,800) and Estonia (78,400).
Southern Europe has seen 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 have moved in the opposite direction. Latvia, Estonia and the Czech Republic have recorded the largest drops in Russian residents, 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 2025. 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. "Everyone now understands that they have no future in Russia. There is no image of the future, no understanding of what will happen in six months or a year," said Anastasia Burakova, a lawyer and founder of Kovcheg, a legal assistance project for Russians abroad.
"What is more, 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.
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