Cyprus spent a total of €44.4 million on hosting Ukrainian refugees in 2022 and 2023 after Russia invaded their country in February 2022.

The figure was released Monday as part of an answer to a question posed to the finance ministry by Larnaca Diko MP Christos Orphanides in April this year.

According to the answer, the deputy ministry of tourism paid €10.1 million in 2022 and €29.3 million in 2023 to accommodate the refugees.

The social welfare department paid out €2.1 million in guaranteed minimum income payments (GMI) to the refugees in 2022 and €1.8 million in 2023. No reason was provided for the drop last year.

It suggests that either the government stopped the support, more Ukrainians secured employment or returned home though the cost of government-paid accommodation was three times higher in 2023 than the previous year.

The foreign ministry also paid out in 2022 and 2023 for humanitarian assistance, €140,000 last year compared with €629,520 in 2022 in the immediate aftermath of the Russian invasion.

At the end of 2023, Eurostat figures showed that Cyprus, with more than 20,000 arrivals, had one of the largest proportion of refugees from Ukraine who were granted temporary protection status since February 2022.

By the end of November, 19,080 of those forced to flee Ukraine had taken refuge in Cyprus.

The figures refer to the temporary protection status for refugees from Ukraine granted on the basis of an EU Council decision in March 2022, which in September 2023 was extended until March 2025.