Can the EU ban former Russian soldiers from entering Schengen?

Estonia is pushing forward the idea of ​​banning Russian soldiers who have fought against Ukraine from entering the Schengen Zone, a visa-free travel area that covers most European Union member states.

The idea, outlined in an internal discussion document seen by Radio Free Europe and circulated to EU capitals in late January, was briefly discussed when the bloc's foreign ministers met in Brussels on January 29.

According to EU officials, who spoke to REL on condition of anonymity, the idea was received positively by the member states that took the floor and there was a general agreement that work on this document would continue with experts on internal and external affairs in Brussels.

However, officials acknowledged that questions were also raised about the scale and whether preventing such a large number of people from entering the EU could be implemented.

According to Tallinn, around 1.5 million Russian citizens have participated in combat operations in Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 - including regular forces of the Russian Federation and other units, such as from the Wagner Group.

Of these, 640.000 are believed to still remain active, meaning there are close to 1 million former fighters who are potential targets for the EU.

The potential security risk to the bloc is clearly described in the document: “Combat experience and the use of violence, including possible participation in war crimes and other atrocities against the Ukrainian population, are common characteristics of these individuals. Their potential entry and presence within the EU not only carries a general risk of violent crime, but represents a major channel for the infiltration of organized crime, extremist movements and hostile state operations throughout Europe.”

The document also states that these individuals could be "a recruiting base for Russian intelligence services."

The document says there is a link between former fighters and the rise in violence inside Russia, particularly among the estimated 180.000 prisoners who were recruited from Russian prisons and sent to special military units fighting in Ukraine.

The document also highlights that "many of the returnees have committed serious crimes."

“Their total number reached its highest level in 15 years in Russia in the first half of 2025, and this increase is likely related to the mass return of former fighters,” the document says, adding that “the freedom of movement of these individuals poses a direct threat to the entire Schengen Area, regardless of which country they enter from. They should have no place in Europe.”

How to prevent the entry of former fighters?

The main issue is how to prevent their entry into the EU.

As of September 2022, the EU has adopted a decision to completely suspend the EU-Russia visa facilitation agreement, making it more expensive and complicated for Russian citizens to enter the bloc.

In addition, Brussels has imposed sanctions, including visa bans, on nearly 2.000 Russians who the EU says have played a role in undermining Ukraine's territorial integrity.

This list includes oligarchs, businessmen, ministers and senior military officials.

Estonia's proposal, however, does not aim to use sanctions, and the effort to target former fighters will not be part of the 20th EU sanctions package against the Kremlin, which is expected to be adopted by all member states later in February.

Instead, Tallinn is using a different method: a Schengen entry ban. As of January 9, Tallinn has imposed a ban on 261 former Russian soldiers. The ban prevents individuals from outside the bloc from entering all EU countries, except Cyprus and Ireland, as well as non-EU Schengen states Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland.

Valid for up to five years, the ban should apply throughout the Schengen Area and not just in the country that registered the ban in the Schengen Information System (SIS), as Estonia recently did with Russian fighters.

But while in principle a country can issue a Schengen-wide alert, individual states can make exceptions and, ultimately, each Schengen country is sovereign in deciding who is allowed to enter its territory.

For this reason, Estonia is seeking broader EU support for these measures, calling on "EU member states and Schengen countries to implement a complete ban on entry into the Schengen Area, as well as the refusal of visas and residence permits for all Russian citizens identified as having participated in the war of aggression against Ukraine."

Estonia also added that "this security initiative, critical to the current situation, requires urgent political and practical support, and we call on all interested parties to join the initiative, treating it as a matter of urgency and helping to include individuals on the Schengen entry ban list."

Will other EU member states follow suit? Most likely. But they also acknowledge that there are difficulties in this regard. One of them is the inability to provide individual data on each former fighter in order to register them in the system.

"A few hundred, even a few thousand, could be entered into the system, but here we are talking about almost a million people," a diplomat told REL.

Although the Estonian initiative is considered sincere and useful, there is also concern within the bloc about overloading the system and encouraging other members to misuse it for political purposes.

An illustration of this occurred last summer, when Romania banned entry into the Schengen Zone to Ion Ceban, the mayor of the Moldovan capital, Chisinau, citing national security concerns.

Ceban is a rival of Moldova's pro-Western president, Maia Sandu, who at the time was preparing her own political alliance for parliamentary elections, which she later won. The ban remains in place, although some EU capitals have expressed concerns about the political nature of the measure. /REL/