Ukrainians most often travel to Poland, Russia - border guards

"The State Border Guard Service has recently reported a record number of citizens - more than 102 million - who passed passport control during 2019. [...] Of the total number of Ukrainians, the land border with the EU countries was crossed by about 30.5 million of our compatriots, with 15 million each entering and exiting the country. This figure has grown by half a million compared to 2018," the report reads.

The trend towards an increase in passenger flows to the European Union was observed even before the introduction of the visa-free regime. Some 22.5 million Ukrainians crossed the border with the EU in 2014. This figure increased by one million in 2015 and by another two million in 2016.

"There was an increase in flows [...] to Germany (+31%), Italy (+26%), Portugal (33 times more), Austria (1.9 times more), Spain (1.6 times more), Greece (+46%), France (+13%), and the Czech Republic (+38%). The State Border Guard Service also observed an increase in the number of our compatriots crossing the border with Canada, Norway, Iceland, Ireland, and Luxembourg," the report reads.

Ukrainians most often crossed the land border with Poland - 9.9 million citizens. Some 3.9 million Ukrainians visited Russia, which is 6% less than in 2018. Passenger flows from Ukraine to Hungary increased by 5%, to 3.4 million people.

Also popular among Ukrainians are Moldova (1.4 million), Belarus and Romania (1.2 million each), and Slovakia (1 million).

With regard to tourist countries, according to the State Border Guard Service, passenger traffic in 2019 to Qatar grew by 37%, to Egypt by 36%, to Georgia by 23%, to Turkey by 21%, to the United Arab Emirates by 20%, and to Cyprus by 15%.

Some 15 million Ukrainians traveled by air in 2019, which was 3.5 million more than in 2018.

op