Almost half of Ukraine’s population traveled to the EU without visa during the year

Open source

Almost half a million Ukrainians have traveled to the EU under a simplified procedure of visa-free regime, during the year, – reported the State Border Service of Ukraine.

«Exactly one year ago today, citizens of Ukraine with biometric passports got the right to visa-free travel to the countries of the European Union, excluding Great Britain and Ireland, and including four Schengen states – Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland», – the message said.

Since the beginning of the visa-free regime, almost 20.3 million citizens have crossed the border with the EU, of which almost 4.8 million croosed the border, using biometric passports and more than 555 thousand Ukrainian citizens took full advantage of visa-free travel.

More often Ukrainians choose to travel by air routes, less by sea. A peculiar "window to Europe" for Ukrainians is through the border with Poland. The lowest flow of travelers from Ukraine to the EU countries is through the border with Slovakia.

As «The Journalist» reported, Great Britain refused Ukraine in negotiations on visa-free travel six times.