Visas to the European Union will continue to be issued to certain categories of Russian citizens, the head of the EU diplomacy Josep Borrell said.

The issuance of visas will continue on a case-by-case basis and, in particular, to specific groups of persons, Borrell explained, stressing that the EU does not want to cut itself off from those Russians who oppose the war in Ukraine, from Russian civil society.

Today, the foreign ministers of the 27 EU countries decided to completely freeze the visa facilitation agreement with Russia, which means reducing the number of visas issued and complicating the process of obtaining them.

At the same time, foreign ministers failed to agree on a complete ban on the issuance of Schengen visas to Russian citizens, as many states opposed the ban.