Social media users are sharing a video saying, “We need to protect ourselves from this” and “Should they work until they are 67 when they can retire at 57 without investing anything?” The point is that Ukrainian refugees in Germany can retire earlier as early as June: men aged 60 years and older, and women another two and a half years earlier, and that Germany will pay for their pension. However, this is fake.

Fact-checkers of the German project Correctiv drew attention to it. They found out that this fake has been circulating in Germany since 2022. In fact, Ukrainians cannot retire before the Germans. The retirement age ranges from 63 to 67 years.

The fact-checkers also found out whether any rules on pensions for Ukrainians have changed. Katja Braubach from the German Pension Insurance Service (DRV) objected: “For citizens of Ukraine, no special conditions are provided for in the pension legislation”. The German Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs (BMAS) also confirmed that “the current legislation applies when receiving a German pension”.

Ukrainians can receive a pension in Germany in the same way as Germans. Persons from abroad must have at least five years of statutory pension insurance contributions to be entitled to pension benefits in Germany. Periods of work abroad only count if it is an EU member state or if the country has a social security agreement with Germany - neither of which applies to Ukraine.

Although EU accession negotiations have been ongoing since December 2023, Ukraine is not a member of the EU. Germany signed a social security agreement in 2018 and ratified it in 2020, but the ratification process in Ukraine has stalled.

For Ukrainians, the “regular retirement age” applies. Excluded from this regulation are a “very small group” of Ukrainian refugees who - like other persons recognized under the Emigrants Act who come from ethnic German families - have acquired working hours recognized as German insurance periods, as stated on the DRV website . However, according to DRV, “normal pension age restrictions” apply here too.

This information can be disseminated by propagandists in order to arouse skepticism and hostility towards Ukrainian refugees among the population. They say that they are taking away the pensions of Europeans, which means that Ukrainians need to stop helping. Detector Media has repeatedly refuted other Russian provocations against Ukrainian refugees in Europe.