INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
get visas or to enter the Schengen zone."This 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," the European Council said in
a statement.The move still needs to be formally signed off by the European Parliament and EU member states.In September, Russian President
Vladimir Putin laid claim to four regions of Ukraine in a unilateral declaration widely rejected by the international community
Moscow also annexed Ukraine's Crimea peninsula in 2014.The Kremlin's grip over some of the occupied territory has been slipping in the face
of a fightback by Kyiv's forces.On Wednesday, Russia's Defense Minister ordered troops to withdraw from the key city of Kherson in a major
blow to Putin's attempted land grab in Ukraine.
