Ukraine asks disgruntled Russians over EU-wide tourist visa ban to 'complain to Kremlin'

Ukraine on Saturday said that the Russian citizens who are upset by the prospect of a ban on tourist travel to Europe "can complain to the Kremlin and to their fellow citizens who support the war." In a statement on Twitter, the head of the Foreign Ministry, Dmytro Kuleba, pushed for the tourist travel ban for Russians to Europe as a resolve to make Moscow pay for war atrocities in their own territory. 

"Russians, upset by the prospect of a ban on tourist trips to Europe, can direct their complaints to the Kremlin and more than 70% of their compatriots who support the war. No one is proposing to ban the entry of the few Russians who may need asylum or humanitarian assistance," Kuleba wrote on Twitter, echoing Zelenksyy's remarks. 

Kremlin warns EU will pay for Ukraine's leader Zelenskyy’s 'whims'

Kremlin had lambasted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's appeals to the EU to ban Western travel on all Russian citizens. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called such measures "irrational" adding that Europe would ultimately pay a price for Ukraine's leader Zelenskyy’s ”whims.” Zelenskyy has been urging the Western states to stop allowing Russians to travel into their territories via the land and demanded that Russians must be denied tourist visas in order to punish President Vladimir Putin for launching a brutal invasion of Ukraine.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov asserted that Russians cannot be isolated from the rest of the world.  ”The irrationality of his thinking, in this case, is off the scale,” Peskov said. 

The Czech Republic, which currently holds the rotating presidency of the EU, this week  backed a proposal to ban the Russian tourist visa across the entire EU. “The flat halting of Russian visas by all EU member states could be another very effective sanction,” Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipovsky said in a statement. The three EU nations Estonia, Latvia and Finland have been pushing for the bloc to ban Russian citizens from travelling into the member states via land, a loophole that the latter have exploited despite the air travel ban. In a time of Russian aggression, which the Kremlin keeps on escalating, there cannot be talks about common tourism for Russian citizens,” Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipovsky said.