Number of Ukrainians leaving for EU keeps decreasing - Ukrainian State Border Service

KYIV. March 18 (Interfax-Ukraine) - Nearly 55,000 people crossed Ukraine's borders with European Union countries and Moldova on March 17, which is about 20% fewer than the day before, the Ukrainian State Border Service said on Friday.

"The passenger flow has substantially declined compared to the previous day," the Border Service said.

"There are no lines of pedestrians or vehicles almost along any directions at the moment," it said.

About 60% of people leaving Ukraine have crossed the Ukrainian-Polish border over the past 24 hours, a decline from 65%-69% recorded in the previous days, it said.

All the crossing points on the western border except for Dzvinkove are continuing to operate round the clock, it said.

Nearly 800 vehicles carrying humanitarian cargo have been cleared on Ukraine's western borders over the past 24 hours, and this number has been stable over the past few days, it said.

Meanwhile, the Polish Border Guard said that the number of Ukrainian citizens who have arrived in Poland has exceeded 2 million people as of March 18.

"The number of refugees from Ukraine exceeded 2 million people as of 9:00 a.m. today, on March 18. These are mainly women with children," the Border Guard said on Twitter.

Lithuania has registered 20,060 refugees from Ukraine, including more than 8,600 minors, BNS reported with reference to the Lithuanian Interior Ministry on Friday.

According to the United Nations Refugee Agency's update as of 1:00 p.m. March 16, a total of 3.17 million people have left Ukraine since February 24, of whom Poland has absorbed 1.92 million, Romania and Moldova about 571,000, Hungary nearly 283,000, and Slovakia nearly 229,000 people.