Passenger traffic across Ukraine’s border increased by 3.7% year-on-year to 452,000 passengers in the first week of winter (November 30-December 6) as the Christmas holidays approached.
According to the State Border Guard Service’s Facebook page, the number of outbound crossings increased from 222,000 to 229,000, while the number of inbound crossings increased from 214,000 to 223,000.
As for their distribution by day of the week, according to the border guards, traditionally, the maximum flow of exit traffic was on Friday-Sunday, while the maximum flow of entry traffic was on Saturday-Monday.
The number of vehicles crossing the checkpoints increased from 118,000 to 122,000 over the week, while the flow of vehicles carrying humanitarian aid slightly decreased from 577 to 565.
The State Border Guard Service indicates that as of 12:00 Sunday, a small queue was observed at only one checkpoint: “Ustyluh” on the border with Poland – 10 cars, while at all other checkpoints there were no queues.
The total number of people crossing the border in the first week of winter this year is higher than last year’s: 206 thousand people left Ukraine and 209 thousand entered during the same seven days, with a traffic flow of 108 thousand cars.
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 184 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 this year is expected to increase to 6.8 million.
According to updated UNHCR data, the number of Ukrainian refugees in Europe was estimated at 6.226 million as of November 18, and 6.786 million worldwide, which is 34 thousand more than as of October 15.
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.
Vehicle traffic through the Ustyluh-Zosyn checkpoint on the Ukrainian-Polish border has been fully resumed.
Due to a malfunction of the Polish Border Guard Service’s networks, the passage of vehicles through the Ustyluh-Zosyn checkpoint was temporarily suspended, and later the clearance was carried out in a slow mode.
Currently, the networks and databases of the neighboring party have been fully restored, so the clearance is carried out in a normal mode.
On the border with Poland, at the Ustyluh-Zosin checkpoint, the passage of persons and vehicles is temporarily suspended due to a malfunction of the database on the Polish side, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine reports.
“At night, the Border Guard of the Republic of Poland reported a malfunction in the database. In this regard, registration and passage is not carried out,” the State Border Guard Service said in a statement on Telegram.
The State Border Guard Service informs that measures are currently being taken to eliminate the malfunction.
“We ask citizens and carriers, if possible, to choose other checkpoints to cross the border,” it concludes.
For the next two weeks, the traffic of cars and trucks leaving Ukraine will be partially restricted at the Chop-Záhony checkpoint on the Ukrainian-Hungarian border.
Due to the repair of the road surface in the customs control zone of the checkpoint, vehicles will be able to use only two lanes out of five available. Accordingly, this will affect their clearance and passage across the border. The repair work is being carried out as part of the Customs and Border Infrastructure Modernization Project with the support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
The European Union (EU) will change the rules of entry and exit in the fall: citizens of non-EU countries will be required to register their fingerprints and facial images at the border.
As reported by the MAPA public union on Monday, the relevant changes were discussed at a meeting between representatives of the Transport Community and representatives of the European Border and Coast Guard Agency at the Ministry of Community Development, Territories and Infrastructure of Ukraine.
The changes will affect transportation and travel to 30 European countries, the statement said.
“The first change concerns the introduction of the entry-exit system (EES). From now on, all non-EU citizens will be required to register their fingerprints and facial images at the border. This process will begin in the fall of this year,” MAPA said.
Another change will take effect from mid-2025: travelers will have to submit an online application to the European Travel Authorization Information System (ETIAS) before starting their trip and pay a EUR7 fee.
MAPA clarified that in connection with these innovations, transport companies will have to make changes to their booking, document verification, passenger check-in systems and adapt their operating procedures.
All checkpoints on the Ukrainian-Polish border were unblocked on Sunday night, Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Mykola Solsky said.
“We express our gratitude to the Polish Ministry for their constructive work on unblocking the border, as well as to the industry associations of both countries. The ongoing negotiations were not easy, but the main thing is that we have a result,” the press service of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy quoted him as saying at the online talks on Monday.
According to the report, negotiations between the ministries and associations will continue. The parties agreed to exchange monthly figures on the transit of agricultural products to monitor the situation.
The next meeting of the agriculture ministers of Ukraine and Poland is scheduled for May 7. They will discuss the terms of cooperation between the agricultural sectors of the two countries in the summer.
