Over 75,000 people leave Ukraine for EU, Moldova over past 24 hours - border service

KYIV. March 16 (Interfax-Ukraine) - Over 75,000 people have crossed Ukraine's borders with European Union countries and Moldova over the past 24 hours, which is about 5% more than the day before, the Ukrainian State Border Service said on Wednesday.

"The indicators show that the passenger flow has tended to increase slightly over the past two days. There are no lines of pedestrians and vehicles almost anywhere, except for the Krakivets, Uzhhorod, and Tysa crossing points, where a small congestion of cars and buses has been observed," it said.

As before, about 65% to 69% of Ukrainians leaving the country have crossed into Poland, it said.

At the same time, the State Border Service has observed a stable inflow of people to Ukraine, including Ukrainian citizens, which amounted to 16,000 on March 15 alone, including over 13,000 men. A total of about 273,000 Ukrainians have returned to the country since February 24, it said.

All of the crossing points on Ukraine's western borders except for Dzvinkove are operating round the clock, it said.

According to the United Nations Refugee Agency data as of 1:00 p.m. March 15, a total of 3.06 million people had left Ukraine since February 24, including 1.86 million people for Poland, over 555,000 for Romania and Moldova, 273,000 for Hungary, and 221,000 for Slovakia.