Passenger flow through western border of Ukraine in Sept 2022, thousand (graphically)
Data: State Border Service
Associations uniting motor carriers of Lithuania and seven other European Union (EU) countries are calling for the problem of queues of trucks at the Ukraine-EU border to be solved, the Lithuanian national association of motor carriers Linava has said.
The association estimates that at present there is a queue of over 40 kilometers on the Ukrainian side at one of the border crossings between Romania and Ukraine, over 25 kilometers – on the Ukrainian-Hungarian border, and about 15 kilometers – on the Ukrainian-Slovak border.
Linava, together with the International Road Transport Union (IRU) and its members, has approached the European Commission (EC) with a proposal to introduce priority border crossing lines for International Road Transport (TIR), which would increase the number of trucks crossing the border into Ukraine by 2 to 3 times.
According to Linava Secretary General Zenon Buivydas, waiting for trucks at the Ukrainian border can take up to several days, which, he says, creates a number of problems for trucking firms and truckers alike.
The appeal to the EC and its President was signed by IRU President Radu Dinescu and Secretary General Umberto de Pretto, as well as Buividas and representatives of carriers from Moldova, Ukraine, Serbia, Slovakia, Latvia, Hungary, Turkey, Romania and Poland.
The flow to leave Ukraine through its western border from October 8 to 14 decreased by approximately 3 thousand compared to the previous week – to 250 thousand people, while the flow to enter fell immediately by 26 thousand – to 239 thousand, reported State Border Service on Facebook.
Thus, according to the agency, this week, with massive Russian rocket attacks for the second time since May 10, a net weekly outflow from the country was recorded – in the amount of 11 thousand people.
The previous time the number of those who left Ukraine for a week exceeded the number of those who entered two weeks ago, but then the net outflow amounted to 28 thousand people at once, and one of the possible reasons was the reaction to mobilization in Russia and “pseudo-referenda” in the occupied territories.
The number of passenger cars crossing the border this week fell to 125,000 from 133,000 a week earlier, while the number of vehicles carrying humanitarian cargo increased slightly from 485 to 494.
The return of the outflow from Ukraine – 15 thousand people per week – was confirmed this week by the Polish border service. According to her, the flow from Ukraine to Poland increased from 163 thousand people. a week earlier to 165 thousand, while the return flow from Poland to Ukraine decreased from 176 thousand to 150 thousand people.
In general, since the beginning of the war, 7.025 million people arrived in Poland from Ukraine, while 5.229 million people traveled in the opposite direction.
According to the State Border Service, during the week the largest influx to Ukraine was on Wednesday-Thursday – 7 thousand people each.
Another news this week was the record number of non-Ukrainian citizens who entered the country on October 14: according to the border agency, their number was about 10 thousand, while in the previous days of the war the record number was 6-7 thousand.
As reported, since May 10, the flow to enter Ukraine through its western border has consistently exceeded the flow to exit for almost a month every day. The net inflow during this time amounted to 188 thousand people. In the following weeks, there was no such clear trend, except for the week at the beginning of the new academic year, when the net inflow amounted to a record 47 thousand people.
However, in general, the statistics testified to the gradual return of Ukrainians home: the net inflow for the period from May 10 to September 23 amounted to 409 thousand people. However, over the past three weeks, the net outflow has reached 21 thousand people.
According to the UNHCR data, as of October 11, a total of 14.031 million people left Ukraine since the beginning of the war (excluding the flow to enter), of which 6.782 million went to Poland, 2.852 million people to Russia (data as of October 3), Hungary – 1.549 million people, Romania – 1.324 million people, Slovakia – 851.8 thousand people, Moldova – 654.4 thousand people, Belarus – 16.7 thousand people.
At the same time, according to the UN, from February 28 to October 11, 6.715 million people entered Ukraine (excluding data from Hungary, the Russian Federation and Belarus).
On Wednesday morning, the Dzvonkovoe customs post on the Ukrainian-Hungarian border will temporarily stop working, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine reports.
“Tomorrow, from 9:00 to 12:00, the Dzvonkovoe customs post will not operate due to installation work. Plan your route in advance,” the message on the Telegram channel says.
The Norwegian authorities, following Finland, are considering the possibility of closing the Russian-Norwegian border for Russian citizens to cross it against the backdrop of a full-scale war unleashed by Russia against Ukraine, the country’s government said on Friday.
“If necessary, we will quickly close the border, the changes can take effect as soon as possible. Compared to Finland, fewer people arrive in Norway, and the situation is different here. Storskog is the only border crossing with Russia. We are in close dialogue with the police and customs about the situation at the border and carefully screening everyone who arrives,” Minister of Justice and Emergencies Emily Enger Mehl explained.
As noted in the government, the partial mobilization announced in Russia and a possible travel ban for Russian citizens may increase the risk of illegal border crossing by the Russian Federation against the backdrop of Russia’s escalation of military aggression in Ukraine. From Friday, police helicopters will overfly the Finnmark region. The police also control Storskog and the area beyond.
According to the Minister of Justice and Emergencies, the police helicopter is a useful tool for monitoring the border area from the Norwegian side.
The authorities also recalled that in May, Norway tightened the requirements for issuing visas to Russians, in particular, there were significantly fewer tourist visas issued.
Hungary is working on expanding the border checkpoints with Ukraine Chop-Zahony and Luzhanka-Beregshurani in order to equip corridors for the export of agricultural products bypassing Ukrainian seaports blocked by the Russian Federation.
This was announced by the Parliamentary State Secretary of Hungary Levente Madyar during a meeting with the head of the Transcarpathian Regional Council Volodymyr Chubirko, organized to address issues of current and future humanitarian support for Ukraine by Hungary.
For his part, the head of the Transcarpathian Regional Council promised, as far as possible, to assist in the implementation of all projects planned by Hungary for implementation in Ukraine, and presented the Hungarian official with world-famous stamps and a postcard on the theme of the Russian ship.
As reported, Ukraine, together with Hungary, intends to apply to the European Union to increase the throughput capacity of checkpoints on the Ukrainian-Hungarian border.
“We will apply together to the EU so that we can develop the capacity of transit corridors from both the Ukrainian and Hungarian sides. We are concerned about what the food supply of the world will be like as a result of the war … We are interested in the movement of goods to accelerate. This is not only the Hungarian , Ukrainian or European interest. This is a global interest,” Hungarian Agriculture Minister Ivstan Nadia said last week.
According to the Minister of Agrarian Policy of Ukraine Mykola Solsky, Slovakia and Hungary are logistics corridors in the European market that have not been developed, because Ukraine exported agricultural products mainly through the sea.
“We have fewer checkpoints on the border with Hungary than with Romania or Poland, so we plan to increase it and are already working on it,” the Ukrainian minister stressed.
