Ukraine upgrading vehicle crossing points on border with five countries

MOSCOW. March 28 (Interfax) - The Ukrainian state agency for infrastructure restoration and development, which has been put in charge of automobile border crossings, will focus on the busiest routes and will upgrade crossing points on the border with Poland, Romania, Slovakia Hungary, and Moldova, Ukrainian media outlets said, citing information circulated by the agency on social media.

"The process of transferring the border crossings under the agency's control for further restoration will be gradual. In 2023, we will focus our attention, first and foremost, on the busiest routes, including the crossings in Yagodin, Rava-Ruskaya, Krakovets, Shegini, Dyakovo, Porubnoye, Krasnoilsk, Dyakovtsy, Belaya Tserkov, Uzhgorod, Chop (Tisa), Luzhanka, Diyda, Mogilev-Podolsky, and Reni," the agency's director Mustafa Naiem said.

The agency is also upgrading border roads as part of an international project aimed at developing border road infrastructure leading to crossings on the Ukraine-Poland border, Naiem said. These are four routes in the Lvov region: Chervonograd-Rava Ruskaya, the Smilnitsa border crossing - Stary Sambor, Yavorov-Grushev, and Nizhankovichi-Sambor-Drogobich-Stry.

The automobile crossings on the border with Poland (Yagodin, Rava-Ruskaya, Krakovets, and Shegini) are currently handling 53% of vehicle traffic, the crossing points on the border with Romania (Dyakovo, Porubne, Krasnoilsk, Dyakovtsy, and Belaya Tserkov) 18%, the crossings on the border with Moldova (Mogilev-Podolsky and Reni) 14%, the crossings on the border with Hungary (Chop (Tisa), Luzhanka and Diyda) 10%, and the crossings on the border with Slovakia (Uzhgorod) 5%.

Ukraine has 100 automobile crossings and checkpoints on the border, including international, interstate and local ones. Thirty-three border crossings remain unequipped, while another 20, built back in Soviet times, are in need of an in-depth refurbishment.

Upon completion of this work, border crossings currently under construction will also be transferred to the agency. They include the Nizhankovichi-Malhowice in the Lvov region and Dyakovtsy-Racovat in the Chernovtsy region.

As reported earlier, the agency for restoration was appointed the central executive body in charge of Ukraine's policy on the development, construction, repairs, equipment, and modernization of automobile border crossings.

The government approved the Infrastructure Development Ministry's proposal to transfer state-owned facilities of border crossings under the agency's control. Prior to that, they had been managed by the State Customs Service.