Infrastructure investing on the Polish-Ukrainian border

Earlier, it was reported that USAID will also allocate $225 million for technical support for the construction of a double-track railway communication with a European gauge (1435 mm) from Lviv to Mostyska on the Polish-Ukrainian border.

USAID's project aimed at improving border infrastructure is complementary to Polish-Ukrainian bilateral activities.

The most important element of these is the support provided to Ukraine by Poland under the tied loan agreement.

According to the December 2022 protocol, the financing of border infrastructure projects on the Ukrainian side may reach €160 million, assuming that goods and services of Polish origin will be partially used in contracts. The areas of action agreed by the parties include the development of road infrastructure at the approaches to five border crossings, the arrangements for border crossings and the purchase of border monitoring tools.

As part of the implementation of the Polish-Ukrainian loan agreement, in March this year an agreement was concluded under which the Polish construction company Unibep will undertake the expansion of the international border crossing in Shehyni. The conclusion of the agreement worth PLN 100 million was preceded by many years of disputes, including several annexes and subsequent cancellation of the previous agreement with Unibep by the Ukrainian side.

The implementation of this investment is particularly important because Medyka/ Shehyni is the second busiest Polish border crossing after Warsaw Chopin Airport. According to the Border Guard, 4.6 million people were checked here in 2023, which is almost a twofold increase compared to the situation before the outbreak of the full-scale war (2.4 million travelers in 2021). 

The construction of the above-mentioned railway communication from Lviv to Mostyska will serve to ease traffic congestion at the Medyka/ Shehyni border crossing, which will allow for the launch of direct railway communications between Lviv and other EU cities – in the first place, Przemysl, Rzeszow and Krakow.

Insufficient border infrastructure is one of the main obstacles in the development of Polish-Ukrainian business cooperation. 

The waiting time for passenger cars to cross the border is usually several hours, and in the case of trucks, it is usually a dozen or so hours, and often even a dozen or so days. This problem concerns not only Ukraine's border with Poland, but also with all neighboring EU countries. With the outbreak of the war, including the restriction of the permeability of the Black Sea route, the situation on Ukraine's western border has further deteriorated.

The unmodernized border infrastructure must cope with increasing exchanges of personnel and closer economic ties. 

Trade between Ukraine and the EU reached a record €61.9 billion in 2023, compared to €35.4 billion a decade earlier. Poland is Ukraine's largest EU trade partner with an exchange of  €15.7 billion, of which Polish exports to Ukraine amount to as much as  €11.4 billion. 

Almost half of the trade between Ukraine and the EU is carried out through the territory of Poland; Poland's share as a transit country in Ukraine's trade with non-European countries is also growing.