The Regional Affairs Ministry is changing the prices for bus tickets on county line services and the regulations will also change the rules for Ukrainian refugees.

Hartman told ERR that as people with temporary protection have the same rights as Estonian citizens to receive social guarantees and subsidies, it was decided to remove the exception.

"In certain years, of course, the rationale was that people would come here for war and we would give them maximum relief to get them settled," she said.

The minister said the policy has been in place for several years, and society has done everything to ensure that Ukrainians who fled the war can get a job, find a place to live, and learn Estonian.

"The agreement today is that we would go forward from here with the same rules applying to Ukrainians as apply to Estonian citizens," she said.

The right to free travel for Ukrainian refugees on the county's public bus routes was established by the Transport Administration on March 8, 2022.

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