Ukraine: Crossing Points - Humanitarian Snapshot: August 2021

In August, the number of crossings of the “contact line” dropped by 7 per cent compared with July, which had the highest number of crossings since March 2020. The decrease in crossings is likely due to the reinstatement of rules by the Government of Ukraine on 5 August 2021 requiring unvaccinated people from non-Government-controlled areas (NGCA) to self-quarantine using a smartphone tracking app when entering Government-controlled areas (GCA). As earlier, self-quarantine can be terminated with a negative COVID-19 PCR or antigen test. While there are some free-of-charge antigen tests (300 per day) available at entry/exit crossing point (EECP) “Stanytsia Luhanska”, these cover only about 20 per cent of the demand (1,360 crossings per day on average from NGCA during August), forcing the majority of people crossing to pay UAH650-800 (US$25-30) for the test or to self-quarantine for 14 days.