After many hours of tough negotiations, the federal and state governments have reached a compromise on the distribution of the costs of caring for Ukrainian war refugees.

This was announced by the Prime Ministers of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Brandenburg, Manuela Schwesig and Dietmar Woidke (both SPD), late on Thursday evening after the end of the consultations between Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and the state leaders in Berlin.

According to Woidkes, refugees from Ukraine should be given financial support in the same way as recognized asylum seekers.

This means that they should receive the same benefits as Hartz IV recipients.

According to Scholz, the federal government wants to support the municipalities with the costs of accommodating the refugees in the current year with 500 million euros.

Woidke said that the federal government would contribute 500 million euros to the costs already incurred in the federal states this year.

The federal government wants to contribute 1 billion euros to the costs of integration in day-care centers or schools.

Schwesig made a similar statement in an abbreviated form.

The meeting with Scholz had already started an hour late in the afternoon because the country heads had significantly more need to talk to each other than initially planned.

At their conference on March 17, the federal and state governments had already agreed in principle that taking in war refugees would be a joint task.

A working group should prepare a decision on the question of costs by April 7th.

It has to be decided whether Ukraine refugees should receive benefits under the Asylum Seekers Benefits Act or basic security.

The European Union has decided to activate the so-called mass influx directive for the first time in order to take in war refugees from Ukraine.

This stipulates that those seeking protection do not have to apply for asylum, but first receive a residence permit for one year and are allowed to work.

An extension of up to three years is possible.

The number of Ukraine refugees in Germany is well over 300,000.

According to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, the Federal Police alone has recorded 316,453 so far.

However, Ukrainians can enter without a visa, so the actual number of those seeking protection is likely to be higher.

The federal police are currently detecting the entry of around 3,000 people from Ukraine every day.

In March, the number of new arrivals was over 15,000 per day.