Passenger traffic across Ukraine’s border in the week from May 10 to 16 decreased by another 4.3% to 491,000, according to data from the State Border Service on Facebook.
According to the data, the outbound flow decreased by 9.7%, from 279,000 to 252,000, while the inbound flow increased by 2.1%, from 234,000 to 239,000.
The number of vehicles that passed through checkpoints this week decreased from 124,000 to 123,000, while the flow of vehicles with humanitarian cargo, on the contrary, increased from 498 to 526.
According to the State Border Service, as of 3:00 p.m. on Sunday, there were queues at the border crossing points (BCPs) “Ustyluh” (35 vehicles), “Krakivets” and “Shehyni” (20 vehicles each) on the border with Poland.
As for other sections of the border, an unexpectedly long queue formed at the border with Romania at the Porubne checkpoint, where the second round of presidential elections is taking place today, with 60 cars, while there were no traffic jams at other checkpoints.
The total number of people crossing the border this year is lower than last year, when Easter for Orthodox and Greek Catholics fell on May 5: at that time, 309,000 people left Ukraine and 239,000 entered the country in seven days, with 135,000 cars crossing the border.
As reported, from May 10, 2022, the outflow of refugees from Ukraine, which began with the start of the war, was replaced by an influx that lasted until September 23, 2022, and amounted to 409,000 people. However, since the end of September, possibly influenced by news of mobilization in Russia and “pseudo-referendums” in the occupied territories, followed by massive shelling of energy infrastructure, the number of people leaving exceeded the number of people entering. In total, from the end of September 2022 to the first anniversary of the full-scale war, it reached 223,000 people.
During the second year of the full-scale war, the number of border crossings to leave Ukraine, according to the State Border Service, exceeded the number of crossings to enter by 25,000, during the third year by 187,000, and since the beginning of the fourth year by 21,000.
As Deputy Minister of Economy 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 April inflation report, the National Bank again estimated the outflow from Ukraine in 2024 at 0.5 million (according to the State Border Service – 0.315 million). In absolute terms, this means an increase in the number of migrants remaining abroad to 6.8 million in 2024. The NBU also maintained its forecast for the outflow in 2025 at 0.2 million.
According to updated data from the UNHCR, the number of Ukrainian refugees in Europe as of April 17, 2025, was estimated at 6.358 million, and 6.918 million worldwide, which is 15,000 fewer than on March 20.
In Ukraine itself, according to the latest UN data at the end of last year, there were 3.669 million internally displaced persons (IDPs).
