Minister of the Interior Igor Taro said the bans were inevitable, as individuals who have committed atrocities in Ukraine in the name of President Putin have no place in the free world. “There is no doubt that these individuals are hostile to Europe. They have combat experience and military training, and may often have a criminal background. In addition, many are psychologically traumatised. The threat they pose is not theoretical – it includes both the potential execution of tasks for Russian special services and involvement in organised crime,” Taro said.
Joosep Kaasik, Undersecretary of State for Internal Security at the Ministry of the Interior, added that these bans are only the first and that further measures will follow. “We are sending a clear message that the crimes and violence committed in Ukraine have long-term and tangible consequences,” he said.
According to Kaasik, this decision was the result of a long process. “We first discussed the issue in depth at a meeting of Nordic and Baltic interior ministers held in Estonia in the summer of 2025. Since then, we have consistently raised the matter and addressed it in detail in various European Union forums. We hope that other countries will soon follow Estonia’s initiative. Our priority is to establish a unified Schengen-wide blacklist and to impose a ban on issuing Schengen visas and EU residence permits to all identified Russian former combatants,” Kaasik said.
It is estimated that up to 1.5 million Russian citizens have participated in Russia’s armed aggression, of whom approximately 640,000 are still at the front.
In Russia, the number of serious violent crimes reached a 15-year high in the first half of 2025. More than 333,000 such crimes were recorded, an increase that is partly attributed to the mass return of previously convicted criminals from the front.
