Travel ban for Russians
Zelensky calls for an international travel ban for all Russians to prevent Moscow from annexing occupied territories. “The most important sanctions are closing the borders because the Russians are taking other people’s land,” he told the Washington Post. Russians must “live in their own world until they change their philosophy”.
A referendum on joining the Russian Federation was announced on Monday in the Russian-occupied part of the southern Ukrainian region of Zaporizhia. There are similar plans for the occupied Kherson region.
Zelenskiy’s remarks are also met with a growing discussion in the EU to make it harder or stop issuing tourist visas to Russians. Even as travel is hampered by cutting flights and rail connections, many Russians have traveled to the EU in the summer despite the war. Russia’s neighbor Latvia in the Baltic States has already tightened visa regulations. Finland is considering this, but demands a solution for the entire Schengen area.
After Russia’s war with Ukraine, there should be no smoldering or frozen conflict, Zelensky said in his video address in the evening. “Ukraine must recover everything that Russia temporarily occupied.” Only an obvious defeat of the attacker is protection against another war, the Ukrainian president said in Kyiv.