Ukrainians remain a key foreign workforce for the Polish economy: as of the end of January 2026, 757,700 Ukrainian citizens were officially employed in the country, accounting for nearly 68% of all employed foreigners, according to the analytical center of the international recruitment company Gremi Personal, citing Poland’s Central Statistical Office (GUS).
The total number of foreign workers exceeded 1.1 million—a 7.1% increase from the previous year. “More than a million foreign workers is no longer a response to a temporary labor shortage, but a structural change in the Polish economy. Businesses have grown accustomed to operating in conditions where it is impossible to ensure the normal functioning of manufacturing, logistics, construction, the service sector, and agriculture without foreign workers,” notes Yevhen Kirichenko, founder of Gremi Personal.
According to him, this trend will have long-term consequences for the entire region of Central and Eastern Europe, including Ukraine.
“Once the war ends, Ukraine will find itself in a situation where it will have to simultaneously rebuild its economy, implement large-scale infrastructure projects, and compensate for demographic losses. However, at the same time, Poland, Germany, the Czech Republic, and other countries will also need workers. In effect, competition for the same workforce will begin,” Kirichenko believes.
Analysts emphasize that Ukrainians are already well-integrated into the European labor market, know the languages, have work experience, and do not require a long adaptation period. For employers, this means lower integration costs compared to hiring workers from more distant countries. At the same time, they also point out that Ukraine has so far had virtually no discussion on how to compensate for a potential labor shortage, and if, after the war, a significant portion of the population chooses to work abroad, the country will face a labor shortage precisely when workers are needed most for economic recovery.
The Consulate General of Ukraine in Lyon will resume consular services for citizens starting July 9, following the completion of administrative procedures and technical preparations, the consulate announced on its official website.
Appointments will be scheduled via an online queue, and a separate appointment system is in place for vulnerable groups. The Consulate General urged Ukrainians to familiarize themselves in advance with the procedures for obtaining consular services and the document requirements.The consular district of the Consulate General of Ukraine in Lyon covers three regions of France: Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, and Corsica. Citizens residing in these regions will be able to register for temporary and permanent consular registration, register the acquisition of Ukrainian citizenship by birth, and register adopted children.
At the same time, other consular services will be provided without restrictions based on place of residence in France. The Consulate General also clarified that foreign passports previously issued by the Embassy of Ukraine in France can only be obtained at the Embassy of Ukraine in France.
The Consulate General also plans to provide mobile consular services in remote cities with the highest concentration of Ukrainians. The first such visits are scheduled for September in Nice and October in Marseille. The possibility of providing mobile services in other cities may also be considered depending on the community’s needs.
The opening of the Consulate General in Lyon is expected to reduce the workload on the Embassy of Ukraine in France and simplify access to consular services for Ukrainians living in the southeastern part of the country, particularly in the regions of Lyon, Grenoble, Marseille, Nice, and Corsica.
According to Eurostat, as of April 30, 2026, there were 4.37 million non-EU citizens in the EU under temporary protection who had fled Ukraine due to the war; more than 98.5% of them were Ukrainian citizens. At the same time, regarding France, Eurostat specifically notes that its data typically does not include minors, so official statistics on temporary protection do not fully reflect the total size of the Ukrainian community in the country.
According to media estimates, there may be approximately 80,000–100,000 Ukrainians in France who left after the start of the full-scale war, although some of them have already transitioned from temporary protection to other legal statuses or have left the country.
CONSULAR SERVICES, consulate general, FRANCE, Lyon, UKRAINIAN
Employers offered jobs to 1,554 Ukrainians aged 50 and older as part of the government’s “Experience Matters” program; as of June 22, 2026, 841 participants had successfully found employment, and another 713 are currently undergoing internships.
According to a statement on the website of the Ministry of Economy, Environment, and Agriculture of Ukraine, more than 2,300 candidates have joined the initiative overall, while employers have posted nearly 2,600 job openings.
Kyiv, as well as the Lviv, Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, and Zaporizhzhia regions, have shown the highest activity in terms of the number of candidates. The regions with the highest number of job openings are Kyiv, Lviv, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, and Rivne. The greatest demand is for salespeople of food and non-food items, accountants, drivers, unskilled laborers, cooks, office cleaners, security guards, seamstresses, janitors, and administrators.
The ministry notes that, given the labor shortage, workers aged 50 and older are an important group for the labor market; however, some of them face age-based stereotypes, the need to update their skills, or difficulties after a long break from work. To overcome these barriers, the program combines career counseling, assistance from the employment service, internships, and direct contact with employers.
Training, which began in the second half of June, is a separate component of the program. Specifically, the course on collaboration in intergenerational teams attracted 1,350 registrations, the course on digital tools and artificial intelligence (AI) received 1,100 applications, and the course on career strategy drew 883 applications.
The ministry added that the Ministry of Economy, the State Employment Service (SES), the Astarta agro-industrial holding, the Zhiznelub Charitable Foundation, the Federation of Employers of Ukraine (FEU), as well as the multi-donor initiative Skills4Recovery, Skills Alliance, and other partners are involved in implementing and funding the program.
As previously reported, the Ministry of Economy, Environment, and Agriculture, together with its partners, launched the “Experience Matters” internship project for adults on May 11, 2026. The initiative is being implemented as part of the National Accessibility Strategy for 2026 and aims to address the labor shortage that, according to the EBA, affects 75% of companies in Ukraine. The project model is based on three components: a training program to update resumes and prepare for job interviews; face-to-face meetings with business representatives to discuss collaboration opportunities; and a hands-on internship lasting up to 10 days to assess mutual compatibility before making a hiring decision.
Ukrainian high school students won five medals at the European Physics Olympiad (EuPhO 2026), which took place June 12–16 in Gothenburg, Sweden.
According to the official results of the Olympiad, the Ukrainian team won three gold, one silver, and one bronze medal.
The gold medals were won by Sviatoslav Lavreniuk, Nazarii Vrashchuk, and Mykyta Voznyi. Lavreniuk scored 36.90 points and took second place in the overall individual standings of the Olympiad. Vraschuk, with a score of 30.10 points, took tenth place, while Voznyi, with 29.60 points, took eleventh.
Oleg Kurnitsky received a silver medal, scoring 17.20 points and placing 50th. Mykhailo Rubtsov won a bronze medal with a score of 12.50 points and a 101st-place finish in the overall standings.
The overall winner of EuPhO 2026 was Bryant Yu of the United States, who scored 38.60 points. Third place in the overall standings went to Haoyi Li of China with a score of 34.60 points.
A total of 199 students from 41 countries participated in the competition. At the conclusion of the Olympiad, 23 gold, 37 silver, and 51 bronze medals were awarded, along with 34 honorable mentions.
The official team rankings were not published in the final results of EuPhO 2026. However, China led all countries in the number of gold medals, with its representatives winning five gold medals.
The European Physics Olympiad is held for high school students. Each country may send a team of up to five participants. In 2026, the Olympiad took place in Gothenburg with the participation of Chalmers University of Technology and the University of Gothenburg.
A Ukrainian citizen illegally crossed the border with Romania in a light aircraft and was detained in Suceava County after a call to the 112 emergency service, according to the Romanian Border Police. The official statement was published on the website of the Sighetu Marmației Territorial Inspectorate of the Border Police.
According to the Romanian side, the incident occurred on March 8 at around 10:30 a.m. near the village of Frătăuții Vechi in Suceava County. After receiving the signal, police and border guards arrived at the scene and identified the man by his Ukrainian biometric passport. Romanian authorities also found the aircraft in the garden behind one of the houses in the village.
According to the Border Police report, the man requested temporary protection in Romania due to the war in Ukraine. At the same time, Ukrainian border authorities were notified of the incident through the Porubne contact point.
Criminal proceedings have been opened against the Ukrainian citizen under two articles: for illegally crossing the state border and for operating an aircraft without the necessary certification documents.
According to the UNHCR and the Romanian government, there were 201,860 refugees from Ukraine in the country at the end of December 2025.
During President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit to the U.S., representatives from PJSC Ukrnafta, the state-owned energy trader Energy Company of Ukraine (ECU), and Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine (GTSOU) LLC met with U.S. companies to discuss preparations for the upcoming 2024/2025 heating season, according to Oleksandr Kamyshin, the president’s strategic adviser.
“We, along with the president, had a meeting with U.S. companies to prepare our energy sector for winter. Three Ukrainian companies attended: Ukrnafta, ECU, and GTSOU. Each of them is working on significant projects in energy generation,” Kamyshin wrote on his Telegram channel.
According to him, the Ukrainian companies aimed to establish business-to-business relationships with the U.S. industry.
Kamyshin mentioned that there was a “productive dialogue” with U.S. energy corporations, financial institutions, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State for Energy Resources Geoffrey Pyatt, and Deputy Secretary of State Richard Verma.
Later, Pyatt tweeted that he had a very fruitful separate meeting with Kamyshin following the energy sector roundtable with Zelenskyy.
“The U.S. and international partners are committed to ensuring Ukraine’s energy security, especially this winter,” he wrote.
Earlier, Verma reported discussing private sector investment in Ukraine’s defense capabilities with Kamyshin.
