"There is an important fracture": Kuleba told about EU visa restrictions for Russian citizens

Foreign Minister of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba gave a positive assessment of the decision of his European colleagues to change the visa policy on Russian citizens. It is a meeting of the Foreign Minister of the EU countries on August 31, which results in the arrangements to make it harder. “This decision should be considered in dynamics.

In the morning, at the beginning of the discussion of EU ministers, the basic decision was only to suspend the agreement on simplified issuance of visas to citizens of the Russian Federation. But as a result of difficult discussions and the exchange of views between EU foreign ministers and I created a small working group that significantly finalized this decision.

In the end, a political agreement was reached yesterday to changes in the EU's visa policy on Russia, ”Kuleba said during a briefing in Kiev on Thursday, September 1. Video of the day, according to him, European diplomats not only agreed to suspend the agreement on the simplified issuance of visas to citizens of the Russian Federation, but also about a number of other important steps.

Kuleba noted that if the decision "is properly implemented by all EU Member States" will be properly implemented, it will be as close as possible to what Ukraine wanted. “The most important fracture that happened yesterday is that the argument that it is Putin's war and the rest of the innocent, remained in the past. It is very important.

Because now, without having this barrier in the perception of Russian aggression, we will be able to make much more powerful solutions, ”the Foreign Minister explained. Against the background of a full -scale invasion of the Russian Federation, some members of the EU, including the Baltic countries, have already limited the issuance of Schengen visas to Russians, justifying the decision that visiting Europe for them is "a privilege, not a right.