Business news from Ukraine

Passenger traffic across Ukraine’s western border during the week of August 15–21 increased by 1.8%—to 791,000 — a record high since the start of Russia’s full-scale aggression, excluding the first few days of the conflict, according to daily statistics from the State Border Guard Service monitored by the Interfax-Ukraine news agency.

The previous record was set in mid-August 2025 at 778,000, but last year during this same week, passenger traffic had already begun to gradually decline.

According to data from the State Border Guard Service, the number of outbound border crossings this week increased to 391,000 from 383,000 the week before, while inbound crossings rose to 400,000 from 394,000.
The number of vehicles passing through checkpoints also increased slightly—to 145,000 from 143,000 last week—as did the number of vehicles carrying humanitarian cargo—to 466 from 459—but these figures are not record-breaking.

The heaviest outbound traffic was recorded on Saturday (61,000 per day), and the heaviest inbound traffic on Sunday (65,000), while the lightest outbound traffic was on Tuesday (50,000), and the lightest inbound traffic on Thursday (45,000).

According to the State Border Guard Service, as of 9:00 p.m. on Saturday, the largest number of passenger cars were waiting to cross the border with Poland at the “Krakovets” border crossing point (BCP)—100, “Ustyluh”—60, and “Shehyni”—50. Shorter lines were observed at the “Hrushev” checkpoint (40 vehicles), the “Nyzhankovychi” checkpoint (20), and the “Rava-Ruska” checkpoint (15).

In addition, 15 buses had accumulated at the “Krakovets” checkpoint, 5 at the “Smelnitsa” checkpoint, and 90 pedestrians were also waiting in line at the “Shehyni” checkpoint, which is very rare.
At the border with Slovakia, there was a line of 25 vehicles at the “Maly Berezny” border crossing point and 10 at the “Uzhhorod” border crossing point.

At the border with Hungary, 30 passenger cars were waiting to cross at the “Luzhanka” checkpoint, 25 at the “Tisa” checkpoint, and another 20 at the “Vylok” checkpoint.
At the border with Romania, 20 vehicles had accumulated at the “Dyakivtsi” checkpoint and another 10 at the “Porubne” checkpoint.

Last year, passenger traffic across the border this week had already decreased by 1.3% compared to the peak figure—to 768,000—with outbound traffic exceeding inbound traffic by 2,000.
It remained at this level during the last week of August but then dropped sharply in the first half of September with the start of the new school year.

As reported, starting May 10, 2022, the outflow of refugees from Ukraine—which began with the start of the war—turned into an inflow that lasted until September 23, 2022, totaling 409,000 people. However, starting in late 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 people leaving exceeded the number of those entering. In total, from the end of September 2022 until the first anniversary of the full-scale war, this figure reached 223,000 people.

In the second year of the full-scale war, the number of border crossings for departure from Ukraine, according to the State Border Guard Service, exceeded the number of crossings for entry by 25,000; in the third year—by 187,000; in the fourth year—by 221,000; and by 77,000 since the start of the fifth year—64,000 of which occurred since the beginning of summer.

In its July inflation report, the National Bank maintained its estimate of last year’s migration from Ukraine at 0.3 million people due to the deterioration of the security situation at the end of the year and the easing of exit rules for young people, but noted that in 2024 this figure will be less than 0.5 million. The NBU continues to forecast a net outflow of 0.2 million in 2026,
while net returns, according to its forecast, will begin in 2027 and amount to about 0.1 million people, increasing to 0.5 million people in 2028.

According to UNHCR data, the number of Ukrainian refugees in Europe as of June 30, 2026, stood at 5.159 million, and globally at 5.687 million, compared to 5.213 million and 5.687 million, respectively, as of April 30.
In Ukraine itself, according to the latest UN data for July 2026, there are 3.80 million internally displaced persons (IDPs), compared to 3.70 million in January of this year and 3.34 million in July 2025.

Crossings at Ukraine’s western border, in thousands: