The number of crossings of the Ukrainian border in the 11th week of summer, from August 10 to 16, stabilized at 737 thousand, with a net weekly inflow to Ukraine recorded for the fourth consecutive week, down to 15 thousand from 24 thousand a week earlier.
According to the State Border Guard Service’s Facebook page, the number of entry crossings decreased to 376 thousand from 380 thousand, while the number of exit crossings increased to 361 thousand from 356 thousand.
The number of vehicles crossing the checkpoints decreased to 131 thousand over the week from 137 thousand a week earlier, while the flow of vehicles with humanitarian cargo increased to 617 from 589.
As for the distribution of traffic by day of the week, according to the border guards, traditionally, the outbound traffic is higher on Friday-Sunday, while the inbound traffic is higher from Saturday to Monday.
The State Border Guard Service points out that there is a periodic accumulation of vehicles leaving Ukraine at the Krakovets and Shehyni checkpoints. According to the State Border Guard Service, there are currently 60 and 50 cars in the queue to leave at these checkpoints, while there are 75 cars at Ustyluh, 50 cars at Kosyno on the border with Hungary, and 35 or less at the rest.
The number of people crossing the border in the 11th week of summer this year is only slightly lower than last year: 384 thousand people entered Ukraine during the same seven days, and 372 thousand left. However, the flow of cars last year was much higher – 144 thousand compared to 131 thousand this year.
As reported, from May 10, 2022, the outflow of refugees from Ukraine, which began with the outbreak of war, was replaced by an influx that lasted until September 23, 2022 and amounted to 409 thousand people.
However, since the end of September, possibly under the influence of news about mobilization in Russia and “pseudo-referendums” in the occupied territories, and then massive shelling of energy infrastructure, the number of people leaving has been exceeding the number of people entering. It temporarily stopped in the second half of December and early January during the holidays, but then resumed again and reached a total of 223 thousand people from the end of September 2022 to the first anniversary of the full-scale war.
During the second year of the full-scale war, the number of border crossings to leave Ukraine, according to the State Border Guard Service, exceeded the number of crossings to enter by 25 thousand, while since the beginning of the third year, the number of crossings has increased by another 101 thousand.
As Deputy Economy Minister Serhiy Sobolev noted in early March last year, the return of every 100,000 Ukrainians home results in a 0.5% increase in GDP. The Ministry of Economy has included in its macroeconomic forecast for this year 1.5 million people returning to Ukraine, while the National Bank, on the contrary, expects an outflow of 0.4 million, which is twice the figure for 2023.
According to updated UNHCR data, the number of Ukrainian refugees in Europe as of July 15 this year was estimated at 6.021 million, and 6.580 million in the world as a whole, which is 24 thousand and 25 thousand more than a month earlier.
In Ukraine itself, according to the latest UN data as of April this year, there were 3.548 million internally displaced persons (IDPs), which is 141 thousand less than at the beginning of the year.
