The European Defense and Foreign ministers will meet this week in Prague, Czech Republic, to debate the proposed visa ban for Russian citizens entering the EU.
Earlier this month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy asked the West to impose wide travel restrictions on Russians, provoking sharp criticism from Moscow.
The six-month-old war in Ukraine remains a foreign policy priority for the European Union.
The Czech Republic is pressing for an EU-wide ban on visas for Russian tourists, a concept that is mostly backed by the Baltic states.
The Czechs presently hold the rotating EU presidency.
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis has said Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Finland, which all share a border with Russia, may act on their own to block tourists if the EU does not agree on a union-wide ban.
Russians mostly enter the EU via the land borders of the five countries since direct flights between Russia and the bloc were suspended following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, according to Landsbergis.
The meeting will also discuss options for setting up an EU military training mission for Ukrainian forces.
Several EU countries have been training Ukrainian troops for a while, mainly enabling them to operate weapons Western nations are delivering to Ukraine to help its fight against Russia’s invasion.
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