{"id":447599,"date":"2026-03-13T13:54:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T12:54:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/03\/13\/soldati-russi-in-europa-otto-governi-ammoniscono-costa-e-von-der-leyen-non-devono-poter-entrare\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T14:59:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T13:59:09","slug":"russian-soldiers-entering-the-eu-eight-countries-warn-costa-and-von-der-leyen-that-they-must-not-be-allowed-to-enter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/03\/13\/russian-soldiers-entering-the-eu-eight-countries-warn-costa-and-von-der-leyen-that-they-must-not-be-allowed-to-enter\/","title":{"rendered":"Russian soldiers entering the EU: eight countries warn Costa and von der Leyen that they must not be allowed to enter"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 Eastern Europe<\/strong> and the Scandinavian countries<\/strong> are increasingly concerned that Russian soldiers<\/strong> who have fought \u2013 or are still fighting \u2013 in Moscow\u2019s war of aggression against Ukraine might set foot on European soil<\/strong>. This fear has been put in writing by the eight leaders of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Germany, Poland, Romania, Finland, and Sweden<\/strong>, in a letter<\/strong> sent today (13 March) to the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen<\/strong>, and the President of the European Council, Antonio Costa<\/strong>. Some governments have received information suggesting that, aat the latest by the end of the war, many Russian soldiers intend to enter the EU. In the text, the leaders describe the potential entry of Russian combatants or former combatants into the Schengen area<\/a> as \u201cone of the most serious risks to the EU\u2019s internal security arising from the war in Ukraine,\u201d and stress the need to address the issue and organise a coordinated European response \u201cas early as in the conclusions of the forthcoming European Council on 19 and 20 March.” <\/strong><\/p>\n

As the signatories explain, “anyone who has taken part in the war as part of the aggressor state\u2019s armed forces poses a threat” that could manifest itself in the form of “violent crimes, organised criminal networks, extremist movements, or hostile activities within the broader context of Russia\u2019s hybrid operations against the EU.” Further worrying the EU\u2019s eastern flank is the fact that, to compensate for losses at the front, Moscow has progressively increased the recruitment of inmates serving time for violent crimes.<\/a> According to the letter sent to the EU leadership in Brussels, there are \u201cmore than 180,000<\/strong> previously convicted criminals who have been recruited from Russian prisons to be sent to the front.\u201d And, as rotations progress, \u201cit is likely that the number of individuals with recent experience of violent combat seeking to travel abroad will increase significantly.\u201d <\/p>\n

Today\u2019s document follows months in which concerns among the major Eastern European countries on this issue have gradually grown. As reported by the German newspaper Die Welt<\/a>, at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in late January, Estonia\u2019s foreign minister, Margus Tsahkna<\/strong>, stated that he was in possession of \u201cinformation suggesting that many Russian soldiers would like to come to Europe following a possible end to the war.\u201d It is no coincidence that the first capital to introduce a regulation<\/a> to ban the entry of 260 Russian soldiers<\/strong> at the beginning of the year was Tallinn<\/strong>, followed by Lithuania<\/strong>, which just yesterday tabled a similar bill.<\/p>\n

 For the countries on the eastern flank, however, national measures are not enough: \u201cgiven the freedom of movement guaranteed by Schengen, the consequences of any entry can be serious for the security of each individual Member State and of the Union as a whole.\u201d For this reason, the authors of the letter are calling for a Community-wide response <\/strong>to these risks, starting as early as the next European Council. In addition to existing instruments \u2013 such as \u201cthe refusal of visas and residence permits <\/strong>and the imposition of long-term entry bans <\/strong>across the Schengen area\u201d \u2013 the signatories refer to the new strategy<\/a> on visa policy launched by the Commission in January, which opened the door to \u201cfurther restrictive measures in cases of serious deterioration in relations with a specific third country<\/strong>, with particular reference to the category of \u2018former and current combatants of an aggressor state\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

It seems \u2013 or perhaps it is \u2013 a passage written specifically with Russia in mind, and at the very same meeting in late January reported by Die Welt, there were reportedly discussions about using it to establish a European regulation<\/strong> similar to the one already approved by Estonia and currently under discussion in Lithuania. According to several European diplomats, however, there are numerous obstacles<\/strong>. Chief among these is the fact that the power to grant or deny visas remains in the hands of individual governments<\/strong>, and the difficulty of proving whether a soldier has actually fought in Ukraine if the latter provides false information. <\/p>\n

All these issues have been postponed \u2013 perhaps \u2013 until 19 and 20 March.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Estonia\u2019s foreign minister, Margus Tsahkna, claims to have \u201cinformation suggesting that many people would like to come to Europe once the war has ended\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7899,"featured_media":267173,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25707],"tags":[25871,26855,27335,25803,28056,31771,30781,28058],"class_list":["post-447599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-politics","tag-estonia-en-2","tag-council-en","tag-russia-in-2","tag-area-schengen-en","tag-soldati-en","tag-ukraine-in-2","tag-visti-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7899"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=447599"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447599\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":447602,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447599\/revisions\/447602"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=447599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=447599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}