The plan now is to make it more time-consuming and costly for Russian citizens to obtain short-term visas to enter Europe‘s passport-free travel zone – a zone of 26 countries made up of most members of the EU plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland known as the Schengen area.

This decision will be made by freezing a 2007 agreement aimed at facilitating travel between Russia and Europe. The EU already tightened visa restrictions for Russian officials and businessmen as part of the deal in May.

Speaking after chairing the meeting in the Czech capital Prague, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said increasing numbers of Russians had been arriving in Europe since mid-July, some “for shopping like there’s no war raging in Ukraine”.

This, he said, “has become a security risk” for European countries bordering Russia.

Borrell said he believed the additional delays would result in fewer visas being issued.

Students, journalists and those fearing for their safety in Russia could still obtain visas. The move would have no immediate impact on the roughly 12 million visas already issued to Russian citizens, but EU officials will consider what could be done to freeze them.

Calls have grown from Poland and the Baltic countries – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania – but also Denmark for a broader ban on Russian tourists. The foreign ministers of Estonia and Latvia have said they may impose new visa restrictions, citing national security concerns.

“We must immediately raise the price for Putin’s regime,” Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu told reporters. “The loss of time is paid for with the blood of Ukrainians.”

Uniform rules are supposed to apply across the 26 countries that make up Europe’s passport-free travel zone, but Reinsalu said “it is our national competence, under the principle of national security, to decide matters entry on our soil”.

“I really believe this is a security issue,” Latvian Foreign Minister Edgar Rinkevics said. “It has nothing to do with any kind of collective punishment. I think it just sends a very clear message to Russian citizens that Ukrainians are dying.

Over the years, several countries have reintroduced border controls for security reasons in the Schengen area, in which Europeans and visitors can travel freely without identity checks.

Finland’s foreign minister, which shares the EU’s longest border with Russia, stressed that his country would reduce, from Thursday, the number of visas issued to Russian citizens to 10% of normal. They will only be able to apply for the ticket in four Russian cities.

“It is important that we show that while Ukrainians are suffering, normal tourism should not continue as usual,” Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said. “Finland has already taken our decision to limit the number of tourist visas. We hope that the whole of the European Union will take similar decisions.

Ahead of Wednesday’s talks, Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod had expressed hope that a common EU position could be found, pointing to the fact that most Ukrainian men do not have the luxury of choose whether they can leave their war-torn country.

“It must have consequences on all fronts,” Kofod said. “We want to limit visas for Russian tourists, send a clear signal to Putin, to Russia, (that) what he is doing in Ukraine is completely unacceptable.”

But European countries further from the borders of Russia and Ukraine are reluctant to go too far.

Belgian Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib said it was important to avoid creating a patchwork system “where Russians could do a kind of visa shopping between European Union countries”.

“It is very important to target the right people. That is, those who support this unjust war against Ukraine and also those who try to evade the sanctions we have imposed,” she said.