Last weekend was a record for the State Border Service of Ukraine, as the number of people who crossed the border exceeded even the traditional summer and Christmas peak days. According to data provided by the spokesman of the State Security Service Andriy Demchenko, 150,000 people crossed the Ukrainian border on Saturday, and on Sunday this figure reached 154,000 people. The vast majority of them were at the entrance to Ukraine — 10,000 more than at the exit.
According to Demchenko, these figures are among the highest during the period of martial law in Ukraine, compared to the summer peak periods and Christmas holidays of previous years, when the figures were 130-140 thousand people per day. He emphasized that it is not possible to compare the current data with what was before 2022, because international airports and checkpoints on all sections of the border were working before the start of the war.
The most tense situation remains on the southern borders with Moldova and Romania, where on December 22, about 17,000 people and 4,000 vehicles passed through the checkpoints. According to the data of the Southern Regional Office of the State Security Service of Ukraine, 7,700 people left Ukraine for Moldova, 1,400 for Romania, and 8,000 people returned to Ukraine, of which 5,000 were citizens of Ukraine.
This confirms the trend towards increased mobility of citizens, which continues even under martial law, when men aged 18 to 60 are prohibited from traveling abroad. At the same time, individual cases are possible when border guards give permission to leave, in particular for those who have a deferment from mobilization.
