Ukrainian citizens received a year ago the right to visa-free travel to the countries of the European Union and a number of states within the Schengen area, and this opportunity has already been used by 555,000 Ukrainians.

"Since the beginning of the introduction of the visa-free regime, almost 20.3 million citizens have already visited the European Union countries, of which almost 4.8 million people used biometric passports and more than 555,000 Ukrainian citizens took advantage of the visa-free regime," the press office of the Ukrainian State Border Guard Service reported on Monday.

Ukrainians most of all travelled by air and least of all by sea.

Poland remains a peculiar "window to Europe" for Ukraine, the border service said. The smallest number of travelers from Ukraine to the EU countries came through the Slovak border.