Zelensky calls on West to ban entry for russian tourists

President Volodymyr Zelensky calls on Western countries to ban all russian travelers amid russia's aggression against Ukraine

The head of state said this in an interview with The Washington Post.

"Whichever kind of Russian… make them go to Russia. They'll understand then.

They'll say, 'This [war] has nothing to do with us. The whole population can't be held responsible, can it?' It can. The population picked this government, and they're not fighting it, not arguing with it, not shouting at it," the president said.

"Don't you want this isolation?" Zelensky added, speaking as if he were addressing russians directly. "You're telling the whole world that it must live by your rules. Then go and live there. This is the only way to influence Putin," Zelensky said.

The president added that the most critical sanctions against russia were the closing of the borders because the russians are currently taking away foreign lands.

According to him, russians should live in their own world until they change their philosophy.

The head of state also emphasized that he wanted russia to know that restoring control over Kherson would be only the first step in the process of de-occupation of the entire territory of Ukraine.

"Let them [russians, ed.] know that as soon as we have enough forces and means, we're going to de-occupy all of our territories," he emphasized.

To recap, Estonia's Minister of Foreign Affairs Urmas Reinsalu, at a joint briefing with Ukraine's Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba in Kyiv, stated that Estonia would submit a proposal to ban tourist visas for russian citizens to European Union countries in the coming week.

"But it is curious how masses of russian tourists can cross the western border—through Finland, Latvia, Lithuania—and visit the Louvre during the summer school break while children are being murdered in Ukraine. A morally helpless situation," Reinsalu also said on ETV's Ringvaade.

Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin told Yle reporters Monday that she believes issuing tourist visas to russians should be restricted and called for a European Union-wide ban.

"It's not right that at the same time as russia is waging an aggressive, brutal war of aggression in Europe, russians can live a normal life, travel in Europe, and be tourists. It's not right," Marin told Yle.

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