The State Border Guard Service has explained the situation regarding queues at the border with Poland
The State Border Guard Service of Ukraine has reported that, as of the morning of 13 July, there is no traffic gridlock at the border with Poland, despite online reports of long waiting times at border crossing points. This was stated by Andriy Demchenko, spokesperson for the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, during an appearance on Den.LIVE.
Andriy Demchenko, spokesperson for the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, explained that queues are mainly caused by large numbers of people arriving simultaneously at the most popular border crossing points: ‘Ustyluh’, ‘Krakivets’ and ‘Shehyni’. According to him, waiting times are often shorter on other routes.
Demchenko noted that traffic intensity is also influenced by the work of Polish border guards and customs officers. At the same time, he said, there is currently no reduction in Poland’s processing capacity.
The State Border Guard Service recommends checking the latest information on border crossing congestion before travelling on the official website of the Western Regional Directorate, where statistics are updated every three hours.
According to the spokesperson, high passenger numbers are set to continue throughout July and August. Whilst in June the number of people leaving Ukraine predominated, the numbers of people entering and leaving are now almost equal.
The day before, on 12 July, videos showing long queues at the Ukrainian-Polish border were circulating on social media. People reported that waiting times at some border crossing points lasted up to 13 hours.
According to border guards, the heaviest traffic congestion at that time was at the ‘Ugryniv’ border crossing, where there were 60 cars and three coaches. At the ‘Ustyluh’ and ‘Hrushiv’ border crossing points, there were 45 and 25 vehicles in the queue respectively. Meanwhile, there were no cars or buses queuing at the ‘Yagodin’, ‘Rava-Ruska’ and ‘Smilnytsia’ border crossings.
