More than 500 international bus routes may be closed in Ukraine
7 May 2025 14:28
The Ministry of Communities and Territories Development has warned international passenger carriers about the next stage of verification of the network of international scheduled routes. This was reported by the Ministry of Development, "Komersant Ukrainian" informs.
What does verification involve?
Its main task is to create an up-to-date network of routes operated in accordance with the permits obtained.
To make an informed decision on route closure, the Ministry of Development publishes a list of regular routes to be closed due to the carrier’s failure to fulfill the required number of flights.
This refers to cases where no border crossings have taken place for four consecutive months. Currently, there are more than 500 such routes.
What is expected from “dubious” carriers
Within 10 working days from the date of publication of such a list, the Ministry of Development expects carriers to report the reasons for the failure to fulfill the route in order to make a decision on the feasibility of operating the routes assigned to them.
In the absence of feedback from carriers within the specified period, the route will be closed as irrelevant.
The relevant justification should be sent to [email protected] by May 20 inclusive.
The Ministry reminded that the closure of non-functioning routes is provided for by Order of the Ministry of Development No. 966, i.e. the Procedure for organizing regular, irregular and pendulum (shuttle) passenger transportation by road in international traffic.
Registration of new routes has been significantly facilitated for carriers
Starting from February 20, international passenger carriers have been able to open, extend and make changes to international routes in the carrier’s online cabinet.
Carriers can fully use all the functions of the online cabinet by following the link.
To start working with their routes, carriers should log in to the portal using a qualified electronic signature. After that, in the “My routes” section, select the appropriate option – “Open route”, “Extend route” or “Make changes” and fill in the necessary fields.
In particular, when opening a route, you need to enter information about the type of transportation, frequency of transportation, country of arrival, point of departure and arrival, timetable, and checkpoint.
The carrier will receive a response on the decision to open, extend or amend the route 10 days after submitting the application. If the data needs to be corrected or contains errors, the carrier will receive a notification in the personal account where they submitted the documents. Errors can be corrected within 5 days.
During the two months of the online cabinet’s full-fledged operation, passenger carriers submitted almost 400 applications for opening, extending or amending routes. Of these, 250 applications concerned the opening of routes.
As of April 21, the Ministry reported that decisions to open 57 routes, extend 11 routes, and change 15 routes had already been approved. Approvals have also been received from neighboring countries to operate 20 routes.
Ukraine continues to reform its international transportation system
As part of the international transportation reform, businesses have received tools to quickly open new routes and operate without bureaucracy.
Work is also underway to ensure that bus passengers can cross the border without queuing.
“Thanks to the eCherzha system, 70% of buses cross the border on time – we are talking about those checkpoints where online registration for a specific time works,” said Deputy Minister of Community and Territorial Development Serhiy Derkach in March.
He said at the time that there was a queue for buses at all 29 checkpoints. At the same time, slotting, which means the ability to choose a specific time to cross the border according to the schedule, is available at 23 checkpoints.
At a recent meeting with carriers, the peculiarities of the new procedure for issuing Interbus logs were also presented, which are permits for irregular passenger transportation abroad.
