A Ukrainian national requested international protection in Germany on 8 March 2023, claiming that she feared returning to and residing in Ukraine. She stated that her apartment had been destroyed during the war and that employment opportunities were no longer available in the country. She further claimed that she experienced domestic violence and issues with her ex-husband, who had physically assaulted her on one occasion and took their eldest son without her consent. By decision of 13 December 2024, the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees rejected her request, finding no legal entitlements to the granting of refugee or subsidiary protection status. The applicant appealed before the Regional Administrative Court of Ansbach, stating that she had been unable to adequately express her concerns through the Russian interpreter. She further argued that returning to her hometown was not feasible, as it had been entirely devastated by the Russian invasion. Finally, she claimed that she and her two children, who were living with her, faced a significant risk of persecution, rape, torture, and humiliation as a result of the ongoing conflict. 

The Bavarian Administrative Court found the decision of the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees lawful. The court noted that the applicant had no legal entitlement to the granting of refugee status, considering that the domestic issues involving her ex-husband in 2012 and 2013 did not reach the threshold of an act of persecution. Moreover, it emphasised that there was no necessary causal link between such issues and her departure, since she left Ukraine in 2022. 

The court also noted that the applicant did not meet the requirements for being granted subsidiary protection due to the Russian aggression against Ukraine on 24 February 2022, because internal flight alternatives were available in the central and western parts of the country. The court found that the latest country information from the Austrian Federal Office for Immigration and Asylum (BFA)’s country documentation on Ukraine (10 February 2025) did not support the applicant’s allegation that she was not safe anywhere in Ukraine because of the unpredictability of the conflict. According to the BFA’s findings, since August 2023, security-relevant incidents in Ukraine had steadily decreased, reaching a low in June 2024, with the number of incidents more than halving compared to August 2023. Furthermore, due to the absence of major war-related destruction in western Ukraine, supply shortages of drinking water and food were not a major problem, even if the prices for basic goods had risen significantly. The court noted that the economic damage in western Ukraine was less severe than in the east of the country and that the Ukrainian economy had begun to adapt to the wartime situation. Furthermore, the court found that the applicant could rely on the support of her family. It noted that she was no longer responsible for her now-adult sons, currently holding residence permits in Germany, and that she could depend on the assistance of her three brothers upon her return to Ukraine.