Passenger traffic across the Ukrainian border this week (December 14-20) jumped by 28.1% compared to the previous week to 584 thousand people as the Christmas and New Year holidays approached.
According to the State Border Guard Service’s Facebook page, the number of crossings for exit increased from 233 thousand to 294 thousand, while the number of crossings for entry increased from 223 thousand to 290 thousand.
The number of vehicles crossing the checkpoints increased from 120,000 to 134,000 over the week, while the flow of vehicles carrying humanitarian aid increased from 595,000 to 633,000.
“Due to the pre-Christmas period, passenger traffic at the checkpoints in Lviv region increased by 25%. The dynamics of border crossing shows a slight advantage of citizens leaving Ukraine over entering. At the same time, there is a general increase in passenger traffic both entering and leaving Ukraine, which is why there is an accumulation of vehicles at some checkpoints,” the State Border Guard Service said.
According to the State Border Guard Service, while last Saturday 42 thousand vehicles were leaving Ukraine and 40 thousand were entering, this Saturday the number of vehicles was 66 thousand and 67 thousand, respectively, and the number of vehicles increased from 21 thousand to 24 thousand.
On the border with Poland, the highest traffic dynamics as of 12:00 is recorded at the checkpoints Krakovets (140 cars), Shehyni and Ustyluh (90 each), Nyzhankovychi (75) and Smolnytsia (65), slightly less – at Hrushev (60), Uhryniv and Rava-Ruska (40).
At the border with Hungary, the longest queue is at Vylok with 70 cars, while the rest of the checkpoints – Kosyno, Luzhanka, Tisa, and Dzvinkove – have between 40 and 30 cars.
At the Maly Berezny checkpoint on the border with Slovakia, 65 cars have accumulated, while at Uzhhorod, 45 cars have accumulated, and there are no queues at the border with Romania and Moldova.
The total number of people crossing the border in the third week of winter this year is slightly lower than last year’s: 290,000 people left Ukraine and 314,000 entered during the same seven days, with a traffic flow of 133,000 cars. Last year, this week, passenger traffic increased by 33.3%, while the following week it decreased by 3.6%.
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. It temporarily stopped in the second half of December and early January during the holidays, but then resumed again and reached a total of 223 thousand people from the end of September 2022 to the first anniversary of the full-scale war.
During 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 since the beginning of the third year, the number of crossings to enter has increased by another 198 thousand.
As Deputy Economy Minister Serhiy Sobolev noted in early March last year, the return of every 100,000 Ukrainians home results in a 0.5% increase in GDP. In its macroeconomic forecast for this year, the Ministry of Economy has included 1.5 million people returning to Ukraine.
At the same time, the National Bank, in its October inflation report, again downgraded its forecast for the outflow from Ukraine this year from 0.4 million to 0.5 million. In absolute terms, the number of migrants staying abroad is expected to increase to 6.8 million this year.
According to updated UNHCR data, the number of Ukrainian refugees in Europe was estimated at 6.254 million as of December 16 this year, and 6.814 million in the world as a whole, which is 28 thousand more than as of November 18 this year.
In Ukraine itself, according to the latest UN data as of August this year, there were 3.669 million internally displaced persons (IDPs), which is 121 thousand more than in April this year.
According to regional authorities cited by the UN, more than 128,000 people have left Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine since August 1, including 24,000 who fled active hostilities, while approximately 330,000 remain in the region, including approximately 63,000 in active combat zones.
In Sumy region, the authorities estimate that 36,000 people, including 6,000 children, were evacuated between August 1 and October 3.
