Travelling to Ukraine: how it works right now

Sooner or later the trip comes up: seeing parents, signing the things no power of attorney covers, showing the children home. This guide is about how the journey works right now — and about the decisions worth making before buying a ticket.

Honesty first: we do not say it is safe to go, and we do not say it is not. The war is ongoing, conditions differ by region and change faster than any page. Most governments officially advise their citizens against travel to Ukraine. The decision is yours; our job is that you make it informed.

How people get there

There has been no civil aviation over Ukraine since February 2022. The way in is overland, through one of the neighbouring countries — and which corridor is yours depends on where in Ukraine you are going:

• Through Poland — the main corridor for Kyiv, the west and the centre: fly to Warsaw, Kraków or Rzeszów, then a train (direct international services run from Warsaw, Przemyśl and Chełm among others) or a bus.
• Through Moldova — the natural route to Odesa and the south: fly to Chișinău, then a bus or train. For the south this is often far shorter than the half-country detour via Poland.
• Through Romania — also for the south and Bukovyna: the airports of Iași, Suceava or Bucharest, then buses; for Chernivtsi, via the northern crossings.
• Routes through Hungary and Slovakia serve Zakarpattia.

Buses are slower than trains everywhere, but their network is denser — and on the southern corridors they are often the main transport.

Tickets on international trains sell out fast, especially around holidays. Plan to buy the moment sales open, not a week before travel.

Tickets: official channels only

Buy tickets only through Ukrzaliznytsia’s official channels — the «Укрзалізниця» app or the official booking site, booking.uz.gov.ua. Around scarce international routes there is a whole market of scalpers and “booking helpers”: multiples of the price, and sometimes simply vanished money. It is the same pattern as in the scams that target Ukrainians abroad: urgency, prepayment, a private channel.

The practical details that save nerves:

• Create the UZ account in advance, at home — not on the night sales open. International tickets are nominal: the Latin spelling must match your passport, and passports are checked at boarding.
• Sales open a few weeks before the date — the exact depth differs by train, so look it up for yours and set a reminder for opening day: the comfortable berths go in the first hours.
• Buy the return leg immediately, for the same reason.
• If your route splits (say, into Warsaw, then a Ukrainian train), the European rail segment is bought separately through that railway’s own channel — for Polish trains that is PKP Intercity.
• Buses: buy on the carrier’s own site or app, never through a listing — the same rule as for trains.

The border

Queues at the crossing are a reality and their length is unpredictable: budget hours, not minutes, and do not build a chain of connections with no slack. The authority on Ukrainian crossing rules is the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine; the entry rules of Poland and the other route countries belong to their border services.

Sort the documents early: a valid Ukrainian international passport (renewing one abroad means a consular queue — start early), the children’s documents, and — if you are a resident of another country — whatever you need to get back in.

If you already hold another citizenship

It is not only people on protection statuses and permits who make this trip — many now carry a US, Canadian or EU passport. Three different situations, and mixing them up is expensive:

• You have Ukrainian citizenship — even alongside a second passport. Ukrainian citizens enter and leave Ukraine on the Ukrainian passport: at its own border Ukraine treats you as its citizen, and the foreign passport does not change that.
• The most important consequence: a foreign passport does not by itself end Ukrainian citizenship — losing it is a separate state procedure. If you once left as a Ukrainian citizen and “simply naturalised” abroad, then for the Ukrainian border you are most likely still Ukrainian — including the men-18–60 exit rules in the next section. Establish your status with the consulate BEFORE buying tickets, not at the border.
• No Ukrainian citizenship (you formally terminated it, or you are foreign-born descendants who never held it): you enter as a foreigner under the rules for your country’s citizens. Many Western passports enjoy visa-free entry for short stays; the current wartime entry conditions — insurance requirements, length of stay — change, so check the official pages of Ukraine’s MFA and the border service before the trip.

“What if I just enter on the foreign passport?”

The temptation is understandable: the Ukrainian passport is expired or in a drawer, the foreign one is valid — enter “as an American” and let the border know nothing. Here is honestly why that is a bad bet:

• There is nothing to hide. Your foreign passport shows the place of birth, and the border guards have citizen registries. Belonging to Ukrainian citizenship is checked by who you are, not by which passport you handed over. Formally, a Ukrainian citizen is obliged to cross the Ukrainian border on the Ukrainian document.
• The main risk is not at entry — it is at exit. If you are identified as a citizen (and for men 18–60 the check is deliberate), then exit runs under the rules for citizens — and an “entered as a foreigner” stamp does not rescue you from them. It is the most expensive way to learn that, to Ukraine, you are Ukrainian.
• Even if it “works”, you have split yourself in two. In Ukraine you are now a “foreigner” with a 90-day stay limit — and simultaneously a citizen with a tax number, an inheritance, a property. Those two identities collide at the first notary, the first bank, or — again — the exit border.

The honest paths remain the same two: renew the Ukrainian passport before the trip (next section) — or, if your goal is precisely not to be a citizen, formally complete renunciation before planning to travel “as a foreigner”. There is no in-between “let’s see how it goes” — or rather there is, but you are not the one who sets its price.

And separately: Ukraine’s rules on multiple citizenship have been changing in recent years — what that means in your case is a question for the consulate, not for group chats. The whole ladder of statuses — from a long-expired passport to children born abroad — is covered in its own citizenship guide.

If the Ukrainian passport has expired

This happens more often than people expect: years pass, and the consular queue runs to months. The key is understanding where exactly an expired passport becomes the problem — because it is not where people assume:

• Getting INTO Ukraine is the smallest problem. A Ukrainian citizen’s right to return home does not depend on whether the paper in the pocket is current, and at the border on the way in an expired document is not normally the obstacle. But “normally” is not a plan: confirm your own case with the consulate before travelling.
• Reaching the route is the real problem. Airlines and the transit countries (Poland, Moldova, Romania) require a VALID document. Without a valid foreign passport or a residence permit with the right of return, an expired Ukrainian passport will not get you onto the plane to Warsaw at all.
• Leaving Ukraine again is the second problem. With an expired passport you will not be let back out — and “a week with the parents” becomes months of waiting for a new passport inside Ukraine, at the State Migration Service. A valid foreign passport does not rescue this: you cross the Ukrainian border as a Ukrainian citizen, on the Ukrainian document — see the section above.

The conclusion is simple: renew the passport BEFORE the trip. Abroad that is done through the consulate or the foreign offices of the state passport service (the “Document” enterprise) in a number of European cities — and the queues are long everywhere, so start the moment the trip becomes a thought, not a plan. And check the whole family’s passports at once: a child’s passport expired by two months breaks the trip exactly as yours does.

Men 18–60: check the rules BEFORE planning

Martial law means exit restrictions from Ukraine for men of conscription age, and those rules change. If you are a man aged 18–60 — even with permanent residence abroad — establish the current exit rules BEFORE buying tickets: from the consulate and official sources, not group chats. The military registration document without which a consulate will not see you is covered in its own guide. There are enough “came for a week, could not leave for half a year” stories to take this seriously.

Planning so you do not sleep at the station

• Do not chain the flight and the train tightly on one day. A delayed flight eats the connection, and the next train may be tomorrow. A night in Warsaw, Kraków or Chișinău is a normal part of the route — build it in from the start.
• Check the arrival time against curfew. A train arriving at four in the morning means waiting at the station until it lifts — plan the pickup or the first onward leg around that.
• Agree things with family in advance: who meets you, what you all do on an air-raid alert en route and at home, and a backup channel if the network is down.
• Money: some hryvnia cash for the first hours (station, taxi, water) — an ATM or exchange is not always nearby at five in the morning. Ukrainian and most international bank cards work.
• The same in reverse: buy the outbound ticket together with the inbound one, and on departure day give the border more time than seems reasonable.

Safety inside the country: what belongs in the decision

• Air-raid alerts are part of daily life. Install the official alerts app in advance and agree with your family what you do when the siren sounds, wherever you will be staying.
• Curfew applies and differs by region — a night train arriving at four in the morning means waiting at the station.
• Insurance: most travel policies do not cover Ukraine or carry war exclusions. Check yours before the trip, not after.
• Power and connectivity: a power bank is not an accessory, it is plan B.

Where to check

Timetables and tickets — Ukrzaliznytsia; border-crossing rules — the border services of Ukraine and the countries on your route; safety advice — the foreign ministry of the country where you live. If something here has gone out of date, tell us.