The Latvian government declared a state of emergency in the region bordering Russia on Tuesday, in response to the “partial mobilization” announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin, which has caused a movement of people out of the country.
The move allows Latvian authorities to focus additional resources on securing the border in case more people try to enter the Baltic country from the Russian side, a move that has been recorded in recent days following Putin’s announcement.
The state of alarm, which takes effect from Wednesday and will last for three months, will include the main border districts with Russia, as well as border control points such as airports and train stations.
The Interior Ministry said that for now the situation on the Russian border is under control, although with Putin’s announcement there has been a significant increase in Russians trying to leave the country.
The Latvian government recently approved, together with Estonia, Lithuania and Poland, the ban on entry into the country of a large part of the Russian population, including those with visas to enter the Schengen area, as a new way of sanctioning 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 European Union (EU) territory.
At least 66,000 Russian citizens entered the EU last week, most via Finland and Estonia, an increase of 30% 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 to the EU is mainly due to the 30,000 Russian citizens who arrived in Finland in the last four days.
These Russian citizens entered the European Union with residence permits and visas for EU member states or those that are part of the Schengen area, and some of them even have 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 on February 24 by Russia in Ukraine has already caused the flight of more than 13 million people -more than six million internally displaced persons and more than 7.4 million to European countries-, according to the most recent data from the UN, which places this refugee crisis as the worst in Europe since the Second World War (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 international community in general, which has responded by sending weapons to Ukraine and imposing political sanctions on Russia. and economic. .
The UN presented as confirmed since the beginning of the war 5,996 civilian deaths and 8,848 wounded, stressing that these figures are far below the real ones.
Source: TSF
