Inside the EU’s battle to bar Russian war veterans from Europe

Euronews · Luca Bertuzzi · 2026-11-06 10:01 UTC

Ukraine has shared the names of more than half a million Russian soldiers, but fewer than 1% have been added to the EU’s Schengen security database. Brussels is now exploring ways to overcome the legal hurdles amid growing concerns over Russian security threats.

Ukraine has shared the names of more than half a million Russian soldiers, but fewer than 1% have been added to the EU’s Schengen security database. Brussels is now exploring ways to overcome the legal hurdles amid growing concerns over Russian security threats.

EU countries are struggling to keep Russian soldiers and war veterans out of Europe because of legal and bureaucratic obstacles that have prevented them from adding hundreds of thousands of names to the bloc's shared security database.

Ukraine has supplied European authorities with the identities of more than half a million Russian soldiers, amid growing fears that combatants returning from the frontline could pose a security threat.

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