Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his daily video address on the evening of the 170th day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine that Russian citizens who are facing political persecution by the Kremlin can obtain a refugee status or request political asylum in Europe in case the issuance of EU visas to Russians is halted.
“Of course, we all understand that there are people who truly need protection, who are persecuted in Russia or can even be killed. They should receive help from the civilized world through the well-known legal mechanisms: a refugee status, an appeal for asylum and other opportunities to help and support them. But it is only for those who are fighting and are persecuted. It does not apply to holidays of Russians and Belarusians, tourism, entertainment and business,” Zelensky said.
The Ukrainian leader also thanked the Czech Republic, the Baltic states and other European countries that brought up the issue of banning EU visas for Russian citizens “at the official level of debates in the EU.”
“After everything that the invaders have done in Ukraine, there can only be one attitude towards Russia — as a terrorist state. By the way, we should look at Russian citizens through this very lens. <…> We need a guarantee that Russian killers and enablers of the state terrorism will not avail themselves of the Schengen [system]. We must not destroy the very idea of Europe and our common European values or, in other words, we cannot transform Europe into a supermarket that anyone can wander into. The main thing is that a person just pays for the items,” Zelensky added.
On Wednesday, the EU started debating an EU-wide ban on Russian visas. The Ukrainian president called on the Western countries to declare a total entry ban for all Russian citizens. According to him, the sanctions that are already in place against Russia are “weak” in comparison to shutting the borders down for Russians for one year and a total embargo on Russian energy sources.
On Thursday, Estonia announced that it was barring entry for Russians with Estonia-issued visas. At the same time, there will be exceptions for diplomats, those working in international transportation, those arriving for humanitarian reasons as well as those visiting a relative in Estonia or those who can travel freely around the EU.
To date, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, the Czech Republic and Slovakia have suspended issuance of visas to Russians.
