The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba, explained the details of the decision of his European colleagues to limit the issuance of tourist visas to Russians.
Therefore, the agreement, instead of one element (termination of the agreement on simplified visa issuance), consists of five elements:
- Indeed, they agreed to completely terminate the Agreement on the simplification of the visa regime — this will already significantly reduce the number of new visas that the EU issues to Russians.
- The idea was accepted that in the future, Schengen will be issued primarily to representatives of vulnerable groups, in particular to those Russians who oppose Russiaʼs war against Ukraine.
- Russian passports issued in the recently occupied territories of Ukraine will not be recognized.
- The EU will come up with a joint solution to answer the question: "Okay, we are narrowing the possibility of getting a new visa as much as possible, but what to do with the millions of visas already issued to Russians?"
- The EU countries bordering Russia got the right to apply their own restrictions. This opens the way to closing the land borders of the European Union for Russians right now, without waiting for major joint EU decisions.
"As you can see, it is much tougher than the supporters of a soft approach to issuing visas to Russians wanted. Therefore, this is an important turning point and the result of a difficult discussion between real partners, in which a balance was found," explained Kuleba.
- On August 31, the EU countries agreed to cancel the agreement with Russia on the simplified issuance of visas. Now Russians will have to pay an increased consular fee (€80 instead of €35) and submit more documents. The process of obtaining a visa will now take longer. Russiaʼs neighbors — the Baltic states, Poland and Finland — demanded a complete ban on issuing tourist visas to citizens of the Russian Federation. It was through these countries that Russians traveled to the EU after the cancellation of air travel due to the war against Ukraine.