Countries including Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia, Finland and the Czech Republic have called for the EU to limit or block short-term Schengen visas for Russian citizens, in protest at their country’s invasion of Ukraine.
Now, Poland is now also considering restrictions for Russian tourist visas.
“Poland is working on developing a concept that will make it possible not to issue visas to Russians,” deputy foreign minister Piotr Wawrzyk told the PAP news agency on Sunday, adding that a decision would be made in the coming weeks.
German chancellor Olaf Scholz has rejected calls for visa restrictions, saying a blanket ban on visas for Russians was “hard to imagine”, my colleagues Andrew Roth and Pjotr Sauer report.
EU foreign ministers are expected to discuss the measure at an informal meeting this month, although universal approval from the bloc’s 27 members would be needed to implement any such policy.
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Two more ships carrying grain left Ukraine’s Black Sea ports on Saturday, Turkey’s defence ministry said, bringing the number of vessels to depart the country to 16 since a UN- and Turkey-brokered deal was agreed in late July, aimed partly at easing a global food crisis.
Ukraine’s infrastructure ministry said on Saturday that 16 ships carrying 450,000 tonnes of agricultural products had departed from Ukrainian sea ports since early August under the deal, which ensured safe passage for vessels, Reuters reports.
The UN-chartered ship MV Brave Commander will depart Ukraine for Africa in coming days after it finishes loading more than 23,0000 tons of wheat in the port of Pivdennyi, a UN official said.
The ship, bound for Ethiopia, will be the first humanitarian food aid cargo to Africa since the start of the war, amid fears that the loss of Ukrainian grain supplies could lead to outbreaks of famine.
The blockage of Ukrainian ports has trapped tens of millions of grain in the country.
Zelenskiy said that in less than two weeks, Ukraine had managed to export the same amount of grain from three ports as it had done by road for all of July.
Ukraine hopes to increase its maritime exports to over 3 million tonnes of grain and other farm products per month in the near future.
- In July, the Eastern Finnish city of Imatra began playing the Ukrainian national anthem at a prominent tourist site every evening, to protest the Russian invasion.