1M Russians Entered EU Since Ukraine War Began, Brussels Unlikely To Impose Travel Ban

The European Union’s border agency Frontex issued updated numbers Thursday on how many Russians it had tracked entering EU borders during the six months since the invasion of Ukraine began. It said nearly 1 million Russian citizens entered the EU since that time, or more precisely a total of 998,085 Russian passport holders had entered since Feb. 24. 

This huge number for the half-year time frame comes as the debate rages in Europe over an EU-wide ban on Russian travel, with Bulgaria being the latest among a slowly expanding list of EU member states to say it won’t support a complete ban, even if it has slowed visa issuances for Russians.

Germany has been among the most important EU nations to say such a travel ban would unfairly impact dissidents, or journalists and activists who are firmly on record as condemning Russia’s war in Ukraine. Some officials and pundits have pointed out it smacks of xenophobia, unfairly targeting a single ethnicity or nationality. 

“What is important for us is that we understand there are a lot of people fleeing from Russia because they disagree with the Russian regime,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said earlier this month. “All the decisions we take should not make it more complicated to leave the country, for getting away from the leadership and the dictatorship in Russia.”

But Finland’s Sanna Marin, representing the pro-ban faction have said Russian tourists should pay a penalty for their government’s actions. Ukraine’s President’s Zelensky has been lobbying various Western government to impose a full ban as the next step in anti-Moscow sanctions. 

So far, the Czech Republic alongside Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have been leading the way in implementing sweeping restrictions on Russian nationals obtaining travel and work visas.

A meeting of EU foreign ministers set for Aug.31 in Prague is set to take up the matter. For now, leadership in Brussels appears to be cold toward an EU-wide policy:

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Monday poured cold water on a proposal to implement a complete ban on Russian travelers into the EU.

Forbidding all Russians from entering the EU “is not a good idea,” Borrell said. “We have to be more selective.”

Speaking during a university conference in Spain, Borrell said the idea pushed by senior politicians in Kyiv and various EU countries was “quite controversial,” adding that it would create division between capitals, as some introduced travel bans without addressing it at EU level.

Borrell stressed that “More than 300,000 Russians have [fled] their country because they don’t want to live under the rule of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin. Are we going to close the door to these Russians? I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

As for Ukrainians who have fled into the EU Frontex said earlier this month that some 7.7 million Ukrainian passport holders had entered, since Feb.24, but among these 4.7 million have already returned to Ukraine – perhaps given the war has been largely limited to the far east and south of the country.