A political scientist linked the reduction of concessions to Ukrainians in the West to the irritation of the locals

The zeal of Westerners to help Ukrainians who have fled their homeland is a thing of the past, now it has been replaced by irritation. Alexander Konkov, an associate professor of the political science department at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, told Izvestiya on 10 December.

Earlier in the day, the Politico newspaper reported on the refusal of a number of countries to grant asylum to people from Western Ukraine. The material notes that it is about the Czech Republic, Hungary and Norway, which began to reduce support for Ukrainian refugees.

"Western society has long lived its own life, and impulses to complicity in the fate of specific Ukrainians or Ukrainian society as a whole are already in the distant past. Today, rather, we are talking about some irritation," commented Konkov.

According to him, the negative emotions of citizens are caused by the fact that they see how Western representatives travel to Ukraine, and it is relatively calm there, while the flow of refugees persists, which causes dissonance. Thus, the expert added, the West wonders whether the Ukrainians are not abusing their status.

"In terms of indirect factors, it is certainly a certain preparation of public opinion in European countries and Ukraine to the fact that it is necessary to make some decisions [to end the conflict]," the political scientist admitted.

Earlier, on December 7, it was reported that Slovakia intended to cut financial support for Ukrainian refugees. It was noted that from March 1, 2025, refugees from Ukraine will be able to receive state financial support to pay for housing for 60 days instead of the current 120.

Before that, on December 5, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called on Ukrainian refugees to more actively seek work in the FRG, otherwise they should return home. He also announced plans to create a Ukrainian administration in the country to coordinate refugee issues. According to him, this issue was discussed with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, whose term of office expired on May 20.

European countries started to accommodate Ukrainian refugees on their territories since the start of Russia's special operation to protect Donbas, which Russia announced on 24 February 2022.