Passenger traffic across the Ukrainian border from May 17 to 23 increased by 1.6% to 499,000 with the approach of summer, according to data from the State Border Service on Facebook.
According to the data, the outbound flow increased by 0.8% from 252,000 to 254,000, while the inbound flow increased by 2.5% from 239,000 to 245,000.
The number of vehicles that passed through checkpoints this week increased from 123,000 to 125,000, while the flow of vehicles with humanitarian cargo decreased slightly, from 526 to 517.
According to the State Border Service, as of 3:00 p.m. on Sunday, there were queues at the border crossing points (BCPs) “Ustyluh” (25 vehicles), “Krakivets” and “Shehyni” (10 vehicles each) on the border with Poland. As for other sections of the border, there were 10 cars at the Tisa checkpoint on the border with Hungary and 5 at the Uzhhorod checkpoint on the border with Slovakia, while there were no queues at other checkpoints.
The total number of people crossing the border this year is almost the same as last year: during the same seven days, 254,000 people left Ukraine and 239,000 entered, but the flow of cars was lower – 115,000.
At the same time, last year, the summer increase in passenger traffic began in the last week of May and lasted for six weeks in a row.
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 those leaving exceeded the number of those 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 30,000.
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).
