Queues: Ukraine–Moldova border today
Ukraine–Moldova border, as of 20:21 on September 18, 2026: the longest exit queue is at “Starokozache – Tudora” (3:35) and the shortest at “Kelmentsi – Larga” (15 min).
Sources: ДПСУ · єЧерга · traveller reports · nakordoni.eu
Air-raid alert: Chernivtsi Oblast (36 min) · Odesa Oblast (25 h 2 min) · Khmelnytskyi Oblast (36 min) Alert data updated at
Eight crossings doing two different jobs
Moldova is the second-largest border on this site after Poland: we publish eight crossings. But it is not one continuous border so much as two separate stories.
The northern group — Kelmentsi, Mamalyha, Mohyliv-Podilskyi, Rososhany, Sokyriany — sits in the Chernivtsi and Vinnytsia regions and is used mainly for travel into Moldova itself.
The southern group — Mayaky-Udobne-Palanka, Starokozache-Tudora and Reni-Giurgiulești — works differently. These carry transit through the Odesa region, where part of the route runs across Moldovan territory. That is why their queues behave more evenly and depend far less on the weekend.
Pedestrian lanes exist at four of the eight crossings: Kelmentsi, Mamalyha, Rososhany and Sokyriany — all in the northern group. Coach lanes exist almost everywhere, at seven of the eight; the only exception is Reni-Giurgiulești.
Three crossings where we have no weekly statistics yet
For Kelmentsi – Larga, Rososhany – Briceni and Sokyriany – Ocnița we publish the current waiting time but not a typical week. There is one reason: the history we have accumulated is not yet long enough to compute day-of-week medians that would not mislead.
We deliberately leave those sections empty rather than filling them with generalities. An empty block is more honest than a confident-looking number with nothing behind it.
A typical week: an even south and a spiky north
The difference between the two groups falls straight out of the figures. Mayaky-Udobne-Palanka is the flattest crossing on this border: across 60 days of observation its typical week stays between 44 minutes and 1 hour 10 minutes. That is the behaviour of a transit corridor, not of a weekend border crossing.
The northern crossings, by contrast, spike hard:
- Mohyliv-Podilskyi – Vălcineț: from 52 minutes on Thursday to 2 hours 41 minutes on Sunday, with the heaviest recorded window on Sunday 19:00–21:00 at around eight and a half hours. That is the sharpest evening peak anywhere on the site
- Reni – Giurgiulești: from 55 minutes to 2 hours 4 minutes, with the heaviest window on Sunday 21:00–23:00
- Starokozache – Tudora: from 1 hour 7 minutes to 2 hours 4 minutes, worst on Friday, peaking Thursday 18:00–20:00
- Mamalyha – Criva: from 19 to 50 minutes — the calmest crossing on this border
The general rule for this direction: avoid Sunday evening. That is when the heaviest windows fall at two different crossings at once.
Why an identical queue produces a different wait
Our calibration is 15 minutes for the crossing procedure itself, plus a fixed number of minutes for every car ahead of you. On the Moldovan border that is 6 minutes at most crossings, but 10 minutes at Reni and Starokozache. At those two, a queue of the same length means almost twice the wait.
Document checks, customs inspection and delays on the Moldovan side are not included — we count the queue and nothing else. We do not publish truck queues; those are handled by eCherha, Ukraine's official electronic queue.
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When to go
In general, border queues are shortest at night, roughly between 01:00 and 05:00, and longest in the evening and at weekends. Check the live figures above before setting off.
Current snapshot across all borders
Queue statistics
| Border | crossings | Average queue now | max |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ukraine–Poland border | 9 | 4:12 | 12:15 |
| Ukraine–Slovakia border | 3 | 21 min | 33 min |
| Ukraine–Hungary border | 6 | 56 min | 2:33 |
| Ukraine–Romania border | 6 | 36 min | 2:15 |
| Ukraine–Moldova border | 9 | 1:23 | 3:35 |
As of 20:21 on September 18, 2026, the longest car queues to exit Ukraine are at the Poland border: “Shehyni – Medyka” — 12:15. The fastest exit right now is via “Yagodyn – Dorohusk” — 15 min. Queues are shortest between 01:00 and 05:00.