(Portal) – Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Friday again urged European Union states to ban visas for Russian nationals to prevent the bloc from becoming a ‘supermarket’ accessible to anyone passing through the has the necessary funds.
Zelenskyi said his proposal does not apply to Russians who need help because they are risking their freedom or their lives by defying the policies of Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin.
“There must be guarantees that Russian murderers or accomplices of state terror will not use Schengen visas,” said Zelenskyy in a late-night address, referring to visas that give the holder access to the borderless Schengen area, which spans several EU countries. States extends.
“Secondly, we must not destroy the idea of Europe – our common European values. Therefore, Europe must not be turned into a supermarket where it doesn’t matter who comes in and where the main thing is that people only pay for their goods.”
Zelenskyy first pushed for a visa ban in an interview with the Washington Post this week, saying Russians should live in their own world until they change their philosophy.
Zelenskyy’s appeal has yet to be backed by key EU actors. But he said he was heartened by the support of the former Baltic states of the Soviet Union and the Czech Republic, the EU’s current rotating president. Finland also supported the idea.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov this week condemned Zelenskyy’s appeal, saying: “Any attempt to isolate Russians or Russia is a process without prospects.”
(Reporting by Ronald Popeski, editing by David Ljunggren and Sandra Maler)