Ukrainian border guards are recording a significant decrease in passenger traffic at the state border. Andriy Demchenko, spokesman for the State Border Guard Service, spoke about the statistics and general trends at the border after the holidays on January 21 during a briefing, UNN reports.
Details
According to him, in recent days, the indicator of state border crossings has averaged about 70,000 per day. On weekends, particularly Saturday and Sunday, the flow traditionally increased slightly, but without sharp jumps, to approximately 80,000 border crossings per day.
At the same time, the last day confirms the general downward trend.
In the future, passenger traffic is unlikely to increase, as 63,000 citizens crossed the border in both directions over the past day.
This is lower not only than the "weekend" peak but also than the average figures of previous days. In other words, if anyone was expecting a new wave of excitement, it is not yet visible. And, according to border guards' estimates, passenger traffic is unlikely to increase significantly in the near future.
Balance maintained: entry and exit almost equal
A separate characteristic of the current situation, emphasized by the agency, is the almost symmetrical ratio of entry and exit. Passenger traffic remains in a proportion of about 50 to 50: overall, the balance is maintained for both entry into Ukraine and exit from the country.
Such parity usually indicates that it is not a massive "one-sided" migration wave, but rather routine trips: returning after holidays, short private trips, border crossings for work and family reasons, logistics between countries for those with stable routes. For border units, this is usually a more predictable mode of operation: fewer risks of an "imbalance" in one direction, fewer chances of chaotic traffic jams due to uneven flow.
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Seasonal factor, or why the decline was expected
The decrease in passenger traffic, according to border guards, traditionally occurs after the end of the Christmas and New Year period.
This is a typical seasonal pattern that repeats every year: some people return home after holiday trips, some postpone travel until later, and some simply "close" logistical issues that have accumulated by the end of the year.
Demchenko emphasizes: in theory, such transitional periods sometimes create the effect of local traffic jams: the flow "drains" inertially, and throughput at specific hours can be uneven.
But as of now, there are no queues at the border
The spokesman for the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine clarifies: the situation is stable and manageable, with no signs of peak load, which usually annoys drivers and passengers the most.
Queues can arise locally: the problem is not the country, but the hour and the point
Despite the overall decrease in traffic, citizens are advised not to rely on the "average temperature in the hospital." In border crossings, the decisive factors are often not the day of the week or even the season, but a specific checkpoint and a specific time slot.
Demchenko speaks of a typical situation: only one specific checkpoint may be busy at a specific hour, while other checkpoints on the border with the same country remain relatively free. This happens for various reasons: different infrastructure, repair work, redistribution of lanes, uneven vehicle approach, intensity of bus routes at certain hours, peculiarities of the adjacent side's operation.
To avoid unnecessary time expenditure, border guards advise familiarizing themselves with the workload of checkpoints in advance. Such data is updated regularly, approximately every three hours, and published on the agency's Facebook page.
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Geography of the flow: Poland consistently leads, Moldova catches up
The structure of passenger traffic remains constant. Regardless of whether it is weekdays or holidays, about half of all crossings occur at the border with Poland. This is a stable leader in statistics, which is easily explained by geography, transport network, number of routes, and the scale of human connections between Ukraine and Poland.
In second place on this list, border guards name Moldova. The Moldovan direction also remains active, although it is noticeably inferior to the Polish one in terms of share. Together, these two directions form the main framework of daily mobility: people travel, return, solve household and work matters, and the border operates in a constant, but no longer festive, load mode.