Number of vehicles queueing to cross Ukraine's western borders nearly reaches 25,000 - deputy infrastructure minister

MOSCOW. Oct 17 (Interfax) - The number of automobiles queueing to cross Ukraine's western borders has reached about 25,000 and keeps growing because of seasonal factors and repairs at certain crossing points, Ukrainian Deputy Minister for the Development of Communities, Territories, and Infrastructure Sergei Derkach said.

"Indeed, the number of vehicles queuing on the western borders is growing. The good news is that we see this online, as we have an electronic waiting list, and vehicles wishing to cross the border are not physically present on the road. But the bad news is that the lines do exist, and they're growing, too. This causes problems to business planning," Ukrainian media quoted Derkach as saying.

The number of vehicles currently queuing to cross Ukraine's western borders has nearly reached 25,000, and if all these vehicles were lined up physically, the line would stretch from Kiev to Odessa, he said.

"There are different reasons, but the seasonal factor is the primary one. We expect the number of vehicles on the borders to keep growing, as we see this phenomenon every year. In negative sense, such things as repairs also contribute to building lines," Derkach said.

Repairs are currently being done at the Yagodin-Dorohousk crossing on the Polish border, Derkach said. The Porubnoye-Siret crossing on the Romanian border is also being overhauled, reducing the number of vehicles it can let through to 200 from over 300 and increasing the waiting time from three to five days. As the weighing machine on the Polish side of the Yagodin-Dorohousk border is currently out of order, the number of vehicles it can let through daily is now about 400 instead of 680, he said.

The Orlovka-Isaccea crossing has not operated since October 6, and about 1,500 vehicles have been redirected from it to other crossing points, which has also lengthened the waiting lists. Many vehicles from that point have chosen the Starokozache-Tudora crossing on the Moldovan border or other crossing points.

Derkach said he expected the lines to start shrinking in December. "You'll see that we won't have any trucks on the borders at all after December 24 due to the holidays. For example, in August, when there were no lines at all, the Nizhankovichi-Malhowice crossing with Poland, through which empty trucks pass, operated with pauses. That is, we had periods when there was not a single vehicle for hours. And now there are thousands of them there," he said.