“They must live in isolation until they change their mentality,” says the Ukrainian leader, which for the Kremlin is “an irrationality that exceeds all limits”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on the international community on Tuesday to ban the entry of Russian citizens throughout the West, in a renewed effort to punish Moscow and prevent Russian annexation of several Ukrainian regions.
“The most important sanctions that can be taken are to close the borders” to the Russians, Zelensky said in an interview with The Washington Post. “They must live in their own world until they change their mentality,” he added. “They say that this war has nothing to do with them and that the population is not responsible, but the population has elected that government and is not fighting against it or against the war,” he lamented.
His words come at a time when the Kremlin is multiplying its efforts to give legitimacy to an eventual annexation of Ukrainian territories. In recent days, numerous Russian leaders have defended the idea of holding referendums in mid-September in the southern regions of Kherson and Zaporizhia, occupied by Moscow’s troops, to “legitimize Russia’s claims” to these territories.
For the Kremlin spokesman, Dimitri Peskov, the “irrationality” of Zelensky’s proposal “exceeds all limits.” “Any attempt to isolate the Russians or Russia is a process that has no prospects” of going ahead, he noted.
The truth is that the demand of the Ukrainian president – who has repeatedly criticized the West for not having a strong enough hand with the Kremlin – is not something new. Due to the war, Russian citizens who want to travel to the territory of the European Union (EU) do so through Finland, Estonia or Latvia, which border Russia, since air connections with Moscow are limited by sanctions. Helsinki already announced last week that it will restrict short-term tourist visas for Russian citizens. This Tuesday, the Prime Minister of Estonia, Kaja Kallas, opened the door to join the Finnish initiative and asked the Twenty-seven globally to “stop issuing tourist visas” for Russian visitors, since “visiting Europe is a privilege and not a human right.
The importance of Russian oil
Brussels avoided commenting on the matter and limited itself to indicating that “it is a matter for each Member State to study short-stay visa applications,” according to the Community spokesperson for the Interior, Anitta Hipper. Moscow has already warned that it “would react very negatively” if that scenario were to occur.
The war, in any case, runs on many other fronts. On the economic front, the supply of Russian oil via Ukraine to Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic has been cut off. The Transneft company explained on Tuesday that its payment for the right of transit through Ukraine during this month of August has been rejected as a result of the entry into force of the sanctions against Moscow. The measure affects the southern branch of the Druzhba pipeline. The northern one, which carries crude oil to refineries in Poland and Germany, runs normally.
Oil appears on the list of sanctions adopted by the EU against Russia, with the aim of reducing imports by 90% this year. The total veto, however, is limited to delivery by sea, although Brussels provides exceptions for Eastern countries, more dependent on Russian crude. According to 2021 data, EU imports of refined oil from Russia amounted to €23 billion and crude oil to €48 billion.
“The Catechism provides for self-defense,” says the Vatican
The Cardinal Secretary of State of the Vatican, Pietro Parolin, defended this Tuesday that “the Catechism of the Catholic Church provides for legitimate defense. Peoples have the right to defend themselves if they are attacked », he stated, in an interview with the Italian magazine ‘Limes’. However, he stressed that “it must be exercised within certain conditions that the Catechism itself enumerates”, such as, for example, “that all other means to put an end to the aggression have been shown to be impracticable or ineffective.” Regarding the conflict in Ukraine, he stated that he believed that “we are still not capable of calculating the consequences of what is happening.” “How is it possible that we do not recognize that the only viable perspective is to stop the weapons and promote a just and lasting peace?” he questioned.
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