Passenger traffic across the Ukrainian border in the first week of spring, from March 1 to March 7, increased by 1.1% compared to the previous week, to 440 thousand, due to an increase in the number of people entering Ukraine.
According to the State Border Guard Service’s Facebook page, the number of exit crossings decreased from 225,000 to 222,000, while the number of entry crossings increased from 210,000 to 218,000.
The number of vehicles that crossed the checkpoints remained at 117 thousand, while the flow of vehicles with humanitarian cargo increased from 553 to 621, so the ban on the “Shlyakh” system for volunteers has not yet affected the statistics.
According to the State Border Guard Service, as of 9:00 a.m. on Sunday, there were small queues at the Uzhhorod checkpoint (15 vehicles) on the border with Slovakia, at the Ustyluh checkpoint (15 vehicles) on the border with Poland, and at the Luzhanka (20 vehicles), Vylok (10 vehicles), and Tisa (6 vehicles) checkpoints on the border with Hungary.
The total number of people crossing the border this week in 2025 is slightly higher than last year’s: 215 thousand people left and 210 thousand entered Ukraine in the same seven days, with a traffic flow of 110 thousand. Last year, passenger traffic remained at this level for another week before increasing during the spring school holidays.
As reported, on 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. In total, from the end of September 2022 to the first anniversary of the full-scale war, it reached 223 thousand people.
In 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 in the third year – by 187 thousand, and since the beginning of the fourth year – by another 21 thousand.
As Deputy Economy Minister Serhiy Sobolev noted in early March 2023, the return of every 100,000 Ukrainians home results in a 0.5% increase in GDP.
In its January inflation report, the National Bank estimated the outflow from Ukraine in 2024 at 0.5 million (0.315 million according to the State Border Guard Service). In absolute terms, the number of migrants staying abroad will increase to 6.8 million in 2024. The NBU also maintained its outflow forecast for 2025 at 0.2 million.
According to updated UNHCR data, the number of Ukrainian refugees in Europe as of February 19, 2025, was estimated at 6.346 million, and 6.907 million worldwide, which is 43 thousand more than as of January 16.
In Ukraine itself, according to the latest UN data, 3.665 million internally displaced persons (IDPs), including approximately 160 thousand people, were displaced from the frontline areas in the east and south between May and October 2024 due to the intensification of hostilities.
