The war against Ukraine was launched by the Russian government and “the Russians themselves should not suffer as a result,” the Pentagon said.
The United States does not support plans by EU countries to limit the issuance of Schengen visas to Russians. The representative of the Pentagon and the US State Department, John Kirby, in an interview with the Dozhd TV channel, published on Sunday, September 4, expressed the opinion that the entire Russian people cannot be punished for Russia’s war against Ukraine.
“We have introduced visa restrictions for Russian individuals. We believe that this is a tool that helps to hold Putin accountable for what he is doing in Ukraine. And in particular to hold accountable members of his oligarchy, supporters of regime, which is involved in the war in Ukraine “But we do not think that the responsibility to all Russians for the actions of Putin is a productive proposal. We don’t think it should be turned into a war on the entire Russian people,” Kirby said.
According to a Pentagon spokesman, “an unjustified war in Ukraine has been fomented by the Russian President and his entourage. And the Russians themselves should not suffer as a result.” At the same time, Kirby emphasized that in Ukraine, Russia is not at war with the United States and NATO, but with the Ukrainian people.
The Russian Foreign Ministry requested more than 50 visas from the United States, but was denied
“It is Russia against the people of Ukraine. It is Putin who decided on February 24 to invade a neighboring country for absolutely no reason, for absolutely no legal justification,” the US official said.
Kirby also noted that the conflict could end any day once the Russian leader decides to withdraw troops from Ukraine. However, he expressed doubt that Putin would do so and therefore warned that the United States would assist the Ukrainian army as long as necessary.
It will be remembered that on August 31, the Foreign Ministers of EU countries agreed to cancel the simplified procedure for issuing visas to Russians. At the same time, they did not agree on a complete ban on issuing visas to citizens of the Russian Federation, which was added especially by the Baltic countries and Poland. In this regard, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Poland said they would consider introducing restrictions on the entry of Russian citizens with European visas.
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Source: korrespondent
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.