Number of Ukrainians crossing border with Russia decreased in 2019

The number of Ukrainians crossing the state border with the Russian Federation decreased in 2019 compared to the previous year, according to Ukraine’s State Border Guard Service.

"As to land border crossings, passenger traffic with the European Union in 2019 remained at the level of 2018. Last year, the border of Ukraine with the EU was crossed by over 36.7 million people. Almost 10% decrease in passenger flow was recorded at the Ukrainian-Russian border: more than 11 million people were registered at that section of the border in 2018, and less than 10 million - in 2019.  The number of Ukrainians crossing the border with Russia decreased by 800 thousand (to 7 million people),” reads the report.

The State Border Guard Service also recorded a decrease in the number of Ukrainian citizens crossing the border with Belarus (by 9%) and Moldova (by 6.1%).

In total, during 2019, Ukrainian border guards issued and checked documents of a record number of citizens - more than 102 million people.

The department also noted that the number of travelers using air transport grew significantly. In particular, more than 20.6 million people crossing the Ukrainian border by air, which is 23% higher than in 2018 (16.7 million). The share of Ukrainians among the travelers preferring air transport grew by over 30% (from 11.6 million in 2018 to 15.1 million in 2019).

State Border Guard Service added that nearly 400,000 people crossed the Ukrainian border by sea in 2019, an increase of 11.5% from 2018.

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