Leaders of eight European countries, including German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, have called for a ban on entry to the Schengen area for russian citizens who participated in the war against Ukraine. The letter was sent to the President of the European Council António Costa and the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen.
It was reported by the portal of the German edition Der Spiegel.
The authors of the document emphasize that the possible entry of the participants of the aggression poses a "serious threat to the internal security" of the EU. Of particular concern are the more than 180,000 criminals recruited from russian prisons to the front. The letter was signed by the leaders of Germany, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, and Sweden. They intend to push for the inclusion of this issue on the agenda of the EU summit on March 19.
A background document by the German Press Agency (DPA) notes that since 2022, about 1.5 million russian citizens have taken part in hostilities against Ukraine, of which about 640,000 are currently involved.
In December 2025, vladimir putin mentioned the figure of 700,000 military personnel in the conflict zone. Some of them, the authors of the letter note, are involved in war crimes and "other atrocities" committed against the Ukrainian people.
The initiative stipulates that all EU and Schengen states should introduce a ban on entry for war veterans, denying them visas and residence permits. Estonia has already imposed such restrictions: in early January, 261 people were added to the stop list, and in February, the list was supplemented with another 1073 names. Estonian Interior Minister Igor Taro said that "you can't kill people today and rest in civilized Europe tomorrow."
European diplomat Kaja Kallas announced in February that work was underway to prevent "potentially hundreds of thousands of former Russian military personnel" from entering Schengen. Czech MEP Tomáš Zdechovský clarified that a ban on issuing visas not only to war veterans, but also to their relatives is being discussed.
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