Ukrainian State Border Guard Service updates border-crossing statistics

MOSCOW. Feb 19 (Interfax) - The Ukrainian border was crossed 408,000 times on February 10-18, the indicator has been unchanged for four consecutive weeks, yet the number of vehicles has decreased for the first time since the beginning of this year, Ukrainian media said, citing a statement by the Ukrainian State Border Guard Service on a social network.

The number of cleared vehicles dipped from 113,000 to 105,000, while the number of humanitarian trucks reduced from 690 to 686, as Polish farmers resumed the border blocking on February 9, media said.

As for passenger travels across the border, last week's parity was replaced with 4,000 more departures than arrivals this week.

An update from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees estimated the number of Ukrainian refugees worldwide at 6.48 million, including 6.004 million in Europe, as of February 15, 2024, which is 30,000 and 29,000 more, respectively, than at the beginning of this year.

As of November 6, the UN estimated the number of internally displaced persons at 3.674 million, compared to the previous estimate of 5.088 million. "This [such a significant reduction] is not due to the return of many IDPs, but rather, first of all, to a change in the methodology for calculating the number of IDPs. The new population base figure used to extrapolate IDP estimates now takes into account the absence of approximately 6.2 million refugees from Ukraine," the Office said.