Ukraine's State Border Service updates border crossing statistics

MOSCOW. Jan 10 (Interfax) - The number of people who crossed the Ukrainian border declined 18.4% to 475,000 over the period from December 30 to January 5 compared to the previous week, while the number of vehicles crossing the border dropped 18.2% week-on-week to 90,000, Ukrainian media said, citing figures published by Ukraine's State Border Service on social media.

Whereas the number of people entering Ukraine was 20,000-24,000 larger per week than the outbound traffic during the previous two weeks, this situation changed over the New Year week, when the number of people leaving Ukraine fell from 302,000 to 224,000, while the number of arrivals decreased from 280,000 to 250,000, the State Border Service said.

The number of vehicles carrying humanitarian supplies cleared to cross the border dropped to 340 from 576 the week before.

Data from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimated the number of Ukrainian refugees in Europe at 5.937 million and 6.340 million worldwide as of January 3, which is a mere 1,000-2,000 more than a week earlier.

As of November 6, there were 3.674 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Ukraine itself, compared to the previous estimate of 5.088 million, the UN said. "This [significant reduction] is not due to a significant return of IDPs, but rather primarily to a change in the methodology used in calculating the number of IDPs. The new baseline population figure used to extrapolate IDP estimates now takes into account the absence of some 6.2 million refugees from Ukraine who are no longer in the country," UNHCR said.