Romania Builds Highway to Ukrainian Border with 14 Border Crossings

Romania plans to complete the construction of a motorway from Bucharest to Siret, on the border with Ukraine, by 2026.

This was announced during the presentation of the strategy for the Master Plan for the Development of Border Infrastructure in Chernivtsi by the President of the Suceava County Council, Gheorghe Flutur, Ukrinform reports.

"Romania has recently approved the reconstruction of the Bucharest-Siret-Porubne motorway. The road will be built with European funds. We are obliged to take all necessary measures to extend this road to Chernivtsi, Ternopil, Lviv and Poland with access to the Baltic States," Flutur said.

He noted that such a road from the Black Sea to the Baltic and Aegean Seas is strategic for NATO. However, in order for the current Porubne-Siret checkpoint to accommodate even more cargo, it needs to be expanded. And specific steps for such expansion were included in the presented strategy for the development of border infrastructure.

This document refers to the construction of new and modernisation of existing checkpoints on the Ukrainian-Romanian border. In addition, the Romanian side, for its part, undertakes to develop railway connections to the Ukrainian-Romanian border in order to increase the amount of cargo for export and import operations between Ukraine and the EU.

In particular, the General Plan for the Development of Border Infrastructure at Road Border Crossing Points developed by Ukraine and Romania includes six checkpoints across the Ukrainian-Romanian border located in the Chernivtsi region of Ukraine.

This was announced by Ruslan Zaparaniuk, Head of the Chernivtsi Oblast Border Guard Agency.

"The joint Ukrainian-Romanian strategy for the development of customs and border infrastructure was presented in Chernivtsi. The master plan includes 14 checkpoints," Zaparaniuk wrote.

The project aims to increase trade turnover, export-import operations, and passenger traffic between Ukraine and the European Union. The plan prioritises the objects. In particular, the Porubne-Siret and Bila Krynytsia-Klimeuts checkpoints are identified as the highest priority, while Dyakivtsi-Rakovets and Krasnoyilsk-Vicovu de Sus are of medium priority. "Shepit-Izvorele Sucevei and Ruska-Ulma are lower priority.