The Latvian government on Tuesday declared a state of emergency in the border region with Russia, in response to the “partial mobilization” announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin, which has led to the displacement of people from the country.
This move allows Latvian authorities to devote additional resources to securing the border in case more people try to enter the Baltic country from the Russian side, a move registered in recent days following Putin’s announcement.
The state of emergency, which will take effect from Wednesday and will be valid for three months, includes key districts bordering Russia, as well as border control points such as airports and train stations.
The Interior Ministry noted that the situation at the Russian border is under control for the time being, although with Putin’s announcement there has been a significant increase in the number of Russians trying to leave the country.
The Latvian government, together with Estonia, Lithuania and Poland, recently approved the entry ban on the country of a large part of the Russian population, including those who have visas to enter the Schengen area, as a new way to punish Moscow for the invasion from Ukraine.
In southeastern Latvia, on the border with Belarus, a state of emergency has been in place for more than a year after thousands of illegal immigrants tried to cross Latvian territory to reach the territory of the European Union (EU).
Last week, at least 66,000 Russian citizens entered the EU, most via Finland and Estonia, representing a 30% increase from the previous week, Frontex announced on Tuesday.
According to the European Border Guard Agency (Frontex) in a statement, this “significant” increase in Russian entries into the EU was mainly caused by the 30,000 Russian citizens who arrived in Finland in the past four days.
These Russian citizens entered the European Union with residence permits and visas for EU member states or members of the Schengen area, and some of them even hold dual nationality.
Thousands of Russians have left the country since last Wednesday, the day Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a partial mobilization to send some 300,000 reservists to fight Ukraine.
The military offensive launched by Russia in Ukraine on Feb. 24 has already resulted in more than 13 million people having fled — more than six million internally displaced persons and more than 7.4 million to European countries — according to the most recent UN data, which rank this refugee crisis as the worst in Europe since World War II (1939-1945).
The Russian invasion – justified by Russian President Vladimir Putin, with the need to “denazify” and demilitarize Ukraine for Russia’s security – was condemned by the generality of the international community, which has responded by sending arms to Ukraine and Russia of political and economic sanctions.
The UN presented 5,996 dead and 8,848 injured civilians as confirmed since the start of the war, stressing that these numbers are far below the actual.
Source: DN
