For the seventh week in a row (from August 26 to September 1), the number of inbound border crossings into Ukraine exceeds the number of outbound crossings: due to the start of the school year, the difference this week jumped to 48,000 compared to 12,000-13,000 in the previous two weeks.
According to data from the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine released on Facebook, exit crossings fell to 327,000 this week from 362,000 last week, while entry crossings remained at 375,000.
The number of vehicles crossing Ukraine’s western border, according to the agency, also fell in the 35th week of the year, from 145,000 to 141,000, while the number of vehicles with humanitarian goods cleared fell from 704 to 653.
The Polish Border Guard Service also recorded an increase in the net inflow to Ukraine over the last seven days – up to 25.8 thousand from 6.2 thousand the previous week and 15.9 thousand a week earlier.
According to the Polish Ministry, the number of those who entered Poland from Ukraine during the week decreased from 229.0 thousand to 208.8 thousand, while the number of those traveling in the opposite direction decreased from 235.2 thousand to 234.6 thousand.
In general, since the beginning of the war, by September 1, 2023, 15.18 million people had arrived in Poland from Ukraine, while 13.47 million people had traveled in the opposite direction.
As reported, since May 10, 2022, the outflow of refugees from Ukraine was replaced by an inflow, which lasted until September 23 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, an excess of the number of those leaving over those entering was recorded. It temporarily stopped in the second half of December – early January for the period of holidays, but then resumed again and in total since the end of September by the anniversary of the full-scale war reached 223 thousand people.
Since that time and up to today, thanks to the statistics of the last seven weeks, the number of border crossings to enter Ukraine has exceeded the number of crossings to leave by 159 thousand.
As Deputy Minister of Economy Serhiy Sobolev noted in early March, the return of every 100 thousand Ukrainians home gives a 0.5% increase in GDP.
According to the UNHCR, the number of Ukrainian refugees in Europe as of August 29 was estimated at 5.834 million, and in the whole world at 6.203 million, which is 4,000 and 6,000 more than a week ago.
In Ukraine itself, according to the UN data as of the end of May, there were 5.088m internally displaced persons.
