The Council of the European Union adopted a decision on Thursday not to recognise Russian travel documents issued in the occupied territories of Ukraine and Georgia.

According to the decision, Russian travel documents issued in the Russian-occupied regions in Ukraine or breakaway territories in Georgia will not be accepted as valid travel documents for obtaining a visa or crossing the borders of the Schengen area.

"Russian travel documents issued in these regions are already not recognised, or in the process of not being recognised, by EU member states. This decision aims to set out a common approach, ensure the proper functioning of the external border and common visa policies and safeguard the security of EU member states," the statement reads.

The EU Council emphasises that the decision is a response to Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified military aggression against Ukraine and Russia’s practice of issuing Russian international passports to residents of the occupied regions. It also follows Russia’s unilateral decision to recognise the independence of the Georgian territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in 2008.

Since the illegal annexation of the Crimean peninsula in March 2014, Russia has issued Russian international passports to residents of Crimea. That practice was extended to the non-government-controlled areas of Donetsk and Luhansk in April 2019, followed by the occupied regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in July 2022.

As the Council of the European Union emphasises, the systematic issuance of Russian passports in those occupied regions constitutes a further infringement of international law and Ukraine’s territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence.

The Czech Presidency over the EU Council and the European Parliament reached a preliminary agreement on the decision not to recognise Russian foreign passports issued in the occupied territories of Ukraine and Georgia in mid-November, after which it was approved by the European Parliament.

The decision enters into force on the day following its publication in the Official Journal of the EU.