This article needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(March 2023)
Transport in Ukraine includes ground transportation (road and rail), water (sea and river), air transportation, and pipelines. The transportation sector accounts for roughly 11% of the country's gross domestic product and 7% of total employment.
In total, Ukrainian paved roads stretch for 164,732 kilometres (102,360 mi).[1] Major routes, marked with the letter 'M' for 'International' (Ukrainian: Міжнародний), extend nationwide and connect all major cities of Ukraine, and provide cross-border routes to the country's neighbours.
International maritime travel is mainly provided through the Port of Odesa, from where ferries sail regularly to Istanbul, Varna and Haifa. The largest ferry company presently operating these routes is Ukrferry.[2]
The total amount of railroad track in Ukraine extends for 22,473 kilometres (13,964 mi), of which 9,250 kilometres (5,750 mi) was electrified in the 2000s.[1] The state has a monopoly on the provision of passenger rail transport, and all trains, other than those with cooperation of other foreign companies on international routes, are operated by its company Ukrzaliznytsia.
Despite its advantageous geographical location and historically important transit position between Europe and Asia, Ukraine’s logistics sector has long suffered from chronic underinvestment and poor connectivity. This has led to high domestic transport costs and reduced export competitiveness.[6][7]
Since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Ukraine’s transport infrastructure has experienced widespread damage. According to a joint assessment by the World Bank, European Commission, and United Nations, total losses in the transport sector alone exceeded US$95.5 billion by mid‑2023, with about 60% of roads and significant parts of the railway network affected.[8][9]
Major donors including the World Bank, IFC, European Investment Bank, and G7 partners have committed funding to support Ukraine’s recovery. In December 2024, the World Bank approved a US$2.05 billion package for economic stabilization, transport sector reform, and reconstruction of critical infrastructure, including roads and Ukrainian Railways.[12][13]
The total reconstruction cost is estimated at over US$524 billion over 10 years, with about 15% allocated to transport, including ports, bridges, rail, and urban transit.[14]
Despite reform efforts, Ukraine’s transport infrastructure remains inefficient. Transport and heating account for a significant share of the country’s energy consumption. Decarbonization and modernization of logistics chains remain among the core challenges for the coming decade.[15]
The advantageous geographical position of Ukraine allows for the location of a number of International Transport Corridors on its territory, in particular :
This section needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(September 2013)
The share of the transport sector in Ukraine's gross domestic product (according to statista) as of 2021 was 5.42%.[16] The number of workers employed in the sector is 8% of total employment.[17] The transportation infrastructure of Ukraine is adequately developed overall, however it is obsolete and in need of major modernization. A remarkable boost in the recent development of the country's transportation infrastructure was noticed after winning the right to host a major continental sport event the UEFA Euro 2012.
In 2009, Ukrainian infrastructure provided for the transportation of 1.5 billion tons of cargo and 7.3 billion passengers. Due to the 2008 financial crisis, the volume of freight traffic decreased by 17.6% in 2009 when compared with figures from 2008; passenger transport fell by 12.7%.
Freight and Passenger Transportation Statistics[18]
Road network in UkraineSection of the E95 / M05 highway near Kyiv.
The development of public roads in Ukraine is currently lagging behind the pace of motorisation in the country. During 1990-2010 the length of the highways network hardly increased at all. The density of highways in Ukraine is 6.6 times lower than in France (respectively 0.28 and 1.84 kilometres of roads per square kilometre area of the country). The length of express roads in Ukraine is 0.28 thousand km (in Germany – 12.5 thousand kilometres in France – 7.1 thousand kilometres), and the level of funding for each kilometre of road in Ukraine is around 5.5 – 6 times less than in those locations.
This is due to a number of objective reasons, including that the burden of maintaining the transport network per capita is significantly higher than in European countries because of Ukraine's relatively low population density (76 people per square kilometre), low purchasing power of citizens (1/5 of the Eurozone's purchasing capacity), relatively low car ownership and the nation's large territory.
The operational condition of roads is very poor; around 51.1% of roads do not meet minimum standards, and 39.2% require major rebuilds. The average speed on roads in Ukraine 2–3 times lower than in Western countries.
As of 2016, many of Ukraine's major provincial highways are in very poor condition, with an Ukravtodor official stating that 97% of roads are in need of repair. The road repair budget was set at about ₴20 billion, but corruption causes the budget to be poorly spent and overweight trucks are common place rapidly causing more road damage.[20]
Total: 169,477 km
Paved: 164,732 km (102,360 mi) (including 15 km (9 mi) of expressways); note – these roads, classified as "hard-surfaced", include both hard-paved highways and some all-weather gravel-surfaced roads.
In 2023, bus passenger turnover totalled 49 billion passenger-kilometres—around 38% of domestic passenger transport—ahead of trolleybuses (6%) and trams (3%).[21]
Kyivpastrans, the city’s municipal operator established in 2001, runs a fleet of approximately 650 buses across 107 urban routes.[22]
The main coach hub is the Kyiv Central Bus Station, rebuilt in 2021. It includes 16 platforms and hosts major carriers such as Autolux, Gunsel, and Ecolines.[23]
The bus network in Lviv includes around 69 routes (49 in service as of 2021), operated by four private firms and one municipal company, with approximately 390 vehicles. In 2024, buses carried nearly 89.9 million passengers, comprising ~70% of total public transport use in the city.[24]
Since the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Ukraine has closed its airspace to all civilian flights; it remains suspended as of May 2025.[28]
Ukraine currently operates about 20 civilian airports, of which 15 have sustained wartime damage.[29]
Negotiations are underway to partially reopen several airports—potentially including Lviv—in 2025, pending risk assessments and safety clearances.[30][31]
Boryspil Airport authorities report that a new joint military-civil security framework is already 60–70 % complete, aiming to enable a phased reopening.[32]
While the aviation sector has largely been dormant, commercial airlines such as Wizz Air and Ryanair have announced plans to resume flights within **6 weeks of a ceasefire**, aiming to re-establish routes and bases in Kyiv and Lviv.[33][34]
Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) – founded 1992, pre-war fleet ~40 aircraft; operations suspended in 2022 and bankruptcy proceedings opened in Nov 2023.[35]
SkyUp Airlines – low-cost/charter operator founded 2018, fleet ~11 Boeing 737s; shifted primarily to ACMI leasing and continues operating via EU subsidiary.[36]
Constanta Airline – Zaporizhzhia-based charter carrier with An-26/An-74 and Boeing 737-300, holds EU/US certificates; serves humanitarian and commercial missions.[37]
Bees Airline – launched 2021 with Airbus A320s; Ukrainian AOC revoked in 2022, now flying under Romanian AOC.[38]
Lviv International Airport may reopen in spring–summer 2025; airlines including Wizz Air, SkyUp, Lufthansa, LOT, Turkish Airlines, airBaltic, and Austrian Airlines have signaled readiness.[43]
Uzhhorod International, on the Slovak border, is being upgraded (≈ €700 000) to support early commercial operations.[44]
Reopening of Boryspil and other major airports depends on military-air‑defence coordination, security clearances, and insurers’ risk coverage.[45][46]
1,672 km (1,039 mi) navigable waterways on 7 rivers, most of them are on Danube, Dnieper and Pripyat rivers. All Ukraine's rivers freeze over in winter (usually December through March), limiting navigation. However, river icebreakers are available on the Dnieper, at least in vicinity of Kyiv.[47]
As of July 2013, Ukraine had 18 "marine trade ports" available for foreign ships' entry.[49] Some of these "marine trade ports" are actually port conglomerates comprising several non-adjacent ports and tenant private terminals. Major river ports are also considered "marine" international ports.
"Derzhhidrohrafiya" (State Hydro Geography),[53] a scientific-production complex of hydro-geographical state companies and science-research center "Ukrmorkartohrafiya" (all lighthouses located in Ukraine belong to the institution)[54] The Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation refuses to surrender former Soviet navigational facilities since 1997
Maritime Security Agency[55] in correspondence of the SOLAS International Convention (including its amendment the ISPS Code)
Ukraine’s natural gas transmission system—one of the world’s largest—comprised approximately 38,550 km of pipelines as of 2024, including 22,160 km of mainlines and 16,390 km of branch lines.[57]
It includes 72 compressor stations (702 compressor units, total power 5,442.9 MW) and 13 underground gas storage facilities with a combined active capacity of about 30.9 billion m³.[57]
As of 2009, the system could import up to 288 billion m³ of gas annually and export up to 178.5 billion m³—including around 142.2 billion m³ to Europe.[57][58]
In 2024, Russia shipped approximately 14 billion m³ of gas through Ukraine—down sharply from peak years—as contracts expired and pipelines were damaged during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.[59]
Ukraine’s crude oil pipeline network includes both domestic and international routes.
It consisted of 4,514 km of pipelines as of 2010.[60]
Notably, the southern branch of the Druzhba pipeline system passes through Ukraine, carrying Russian oil and Kazakh oil toward Central Europe.[61]
The 674 km-long Odesa–Brody pipeline links Odesa to Brody, near the Polish border, and has been used for both northbound and southbound flows since 2002.[62]
In 2024, about 230,000 barrels per day (≈11.5 million tonnes/year) of Russian crude flowed through Ukraine—mainly to Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic—via the Druzhba system.[63]
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