Krasnoilsk-Vicovu De Sus Border Checkpoint Ready For Opening - Infrastructure Ministry

The new Krasnoilsk-Vicovu de Sus international automobile checkpoint on the Ukrainian-Romanian border will begin operation this week.

The Ukrainian Ministry of Infrastructure announced this in a statement, the CFTS portal reports.

Passenger cars and empty trucks will pass through the checkpoint.

This checkpoint is expected to relieve the load on the Porubne-Siret checkpoint, which is the only active checkpoint on the Ukrainian-Romanian border.

"The Porubne-Siret crossing point is currently one of the busiest. The road to European ports passes through this crossing point, which is very important to Ukrainian exporters, and there is no alternative route for transporting cargo from Ukraine to Romania. The other crossing points on the Ukrainian-Romanian border are not intended for the passage of trucks," Ukraine’s Minister of Infrastructure Oleksandr Kubrakov said.

He added that the Krasnoilsk-Vicovu de Sus international automobile checkpoint was initially designed as a crossing point for pedestrians and light vehicles.

"Together with our Romanian counterparts, a decision has been made that Krasnoilsk will handle the passage of trucks from now on. Initially, only empty trucks will be allowed to pass. In the next phase, trucks carrying our export goods will be allowed to pass. This will become possible after the completion of the works on the Romanian side," Kubrakov said.

So far, over 7 kilometers of the road have been overhauled, the territory of the international automobile checkpoint and the workplaces for representatives of all agencies have been equipped, lighting and communications systems have been installed, and the equipment necessary for the checkpoint’s operations has been installed.

An agreement on the construction of the Krasnoilsk-Vicovu de Sus international automobile checkpoint was reached back in 2015.

Its construction took place within the framework of the "Open Border" project. With this project, Ukraine plans to develop the existing road border infrastructure to increase the throughput of the Ukraine-EU border.