“They have to live in isolation until they change their mentality,” says the Ukrainian leader, which for the Kremlin is “an irrationality that transcends all borders”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday called on the international community to ban Russian citizens from entering the West, in a renewed effort to punish Moscow and prevent the Russian annexation of several Ukrainian regions.
“The main sanctions that can be taken are closing the borders” for the Russians, Zelensky said in an interview with The Washington Post. “They have to live in their own world until they change their mindset,” he added. “They say that this war has nothing to do with them and that the people are not responsible, but the people have elected that government and are not fighting against it or against the war,” he lamented.
His words come at a time when the Kremlin is ramping up its efforts to give legitimacy to an eventual annexation of Ukrainian territories. In recent days, numerous Russian leaders have championed the idea of holding referendums in mid-September in the southern regions of Kherson and Zaporizhia, occupied by Moscow’s troops, in order to “legitimize” Russia’s claims in these areas.
According to Kremlin spokesman Dimitri Peskov, “the “irrationality” of Zelensky’s proposal “transgresses all borders”. “Any attempt to isolate the Russians or Russia is a process that has no prospects” to continue, he said. he.
The truth is that the Ukrainian president’s demand – who has repeatedly criticized the West for not being strong enough with the Kremlin – is not something new. Because of the war, Russian nationals wishing to travel to European Union (EU) territory do so via Finland, Estonia or Latvia, which borders Russia, as air connections to Moscow are restricted by sanctions. Helsinki announced last week that it will restrict short-term tourist visas for Russian citizens. This Tuesday, Estonia’s Prime Minister, Kaja Kallas, opened the door to join the Finnish initiative, asking the twenty-seven worldwide to “stop issuing tourist visas” to Russian visitors, as “visiting Europe is a privilege and no human right.
Brussels avoided comment on the matter, limiting itself to stating that “it is a matter for each Member State to study short-stay visa applications,” said Community Home Affairs spokesman Anitta Hipper. Moscow has already warned it would “react very negatively” if that scenario happened.
In any case, the war is on many other fronts. In economic terms, 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 to transit through Ukraine during this August has been rejected due to the entry into force of 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, is running normally.
Oil is on the list of sanctions the EU has passed against Russia, aiming to cut imports by 90% this year. However, the total veto is limited to shipping by sea, although Brussels offers exceptions for eastern countries, which are more dependent on Russian crude oil. According to 2021 data, EU imports of refined oil from Russia amounted to €23 billion and crude oil amounted to €48 billion.
Cardinal Vatican Secretary of State Pietro Parolin defended this Tuesday that “the Catechism of the Catholic Church provides a legitimate defense. Peoples have the right to defend themselves if they are attacked,” he said in an interview with the Italian magazine Limes. However, he stressed that “it must be exercised under certain conditions that the catechism itself lists,” such as, for example, “that all other means of ending the aggression have proved impractical or ineffective.” Regarding the conflict in Ukraine, he stated that he believes that “we are still unable to calculate the consequences of what is happening”. How can we fail to recognize that the only viable perspective is to end weapons and promote a just and lasting peace?
Source: La Verdad
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