As the new school year approached, passenger traffic across Ukraine’s western border during the last full week of summer—August 22–28—fell by 4.6% from last week’s record high to 755,000, according to daily statistics from the State Border Guard Service, as tracked by the “Interfax-Ukraine” agency.
According to the State Border Service, the number of outbound border crossings this week fell to 364,000 from 391,000 the week before, while the number of inbound crossings fell to 391,000 from 400,000.
The number of vehicles passing through border crossing points remained at 145,000, while the number of vehicles carrying humanitarian cargo fell to 433 from 466.
The highest outbound traffic was recorded on Saturday (60,000 per day), and the highest inbound traffic on Sunday (62,000), while the lowest outbound traffic was on Monday (46,000) and the lowest inbound traffic on Thursday (50,000).
According to the State Border Guard Service, as of 6:00 p.m. on Saturday, the largest number of passenger cars were waiting to cross the border with Poland at the “Krakivets” border crossing point (BCP)—80—and the “Ustyluh” BCP—65. Smaller lines were observed at the “Shehyni” checkpoint (45 vehicles), the “Hrushiv” checkpoint (30), the “Nyzhankovychi” checkpoint (20), and the “Ugryniv” checkpoint (10).
In addition, 12 buses had accumulated at the “Krakivets” checkpoint, and at the “Shehyni” checkpoint, 170 pedestrians were also waiting in line, which is very rare.
At the border with Slovakia, there was a line of 20 cars at the “Maly Berezny” checkpoint, 15 cars and 2 buses at the “Uzhhorod” checkpoint.
At the border with Hungary, 20 passenger cars each were waiting to cross at the “Tisa” and “Vylok” border checkpoints, while 15 were waiting at the “Luzhanka” checkpoint and 10 at the “Kosyno” checkpoint.
At the border with Romania, 40 cars had accumulated at the “Dyakivtsi” checkpoint and another 6 at the “Krasnoilsk” checkpoint, while at the border with Moldova, there was a line of 25 cars at the “Mamalyga” checkpoint.
Last year, passenger traffic across the border during this week was still at its peak at the time—769,000—though the number of people entering the country significantly exceeded the number leaving—by 33,000 compared to 27,000 this year.
The following week last year, passenger traffic dropped immediately by 10%, and over the course of the week—by another 12.4%.
As previously reported, starting May 10, 2022, the outflow of refugees from Ukraine—which had begun with the start of the war—turned into an inflow that lasted until September 23, 2022, totaling 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 has exceeded the number of those entering. In total, from the end of September 2022 until the first anniversary of the full-scale war, this figure reached 223,000 people.
In the second year of the full-scale war, the number of border crossings out of Ukraine, according to the State Border Guard Service, exceeded the number of border crossings into the country by 25,000; in the third year—by 187,000; in the fourth year—by 221,000; and since the start of the fifth year by 44,000, of which 31,000 have occurred since the beginning of summer.
In its July inflation report, the National Bank maintained its estimate of 0.3 million people migrating from Ukraine last year due to the deterioration of the security situation at the end of the year and the easing of exit rules for young people, but noted that this figure will be less than 0.5 million in 2024. The NBU continues to forecast a net outflow of 0.2 million in 2026, while net returns, according to its forecast, will begin in 2027 and amount to about 0.1 million people, increasing to 0.5 million people in 2028.
According to UNHCR data, the number of Ukrainian refugees in Europe as of June 30, 2026, stood at 5.159 million, and globally at 5.687 million, compared to 5.213 million and 5.687 million, respectively, as of April 30.
In Ukraine itself, according to the latest UN data for July 2026, there were 3.80 million internally displaced persons (IDPs), compared to 3.70 million in January of this year and 3.34 million in July 2025.
BORDER, MIGRATION, PASSENGER TRAFFIC, State Border Guard Service, UKRAINE
