Britain imposed sanctions on dozens of Russian officials, media operatives and organisations on Monday, targeting what it said were Kremlin‑run youth programmes and entities involved in the deportation and indoctrination of Ukrainian children.
Ukraine says close to 20,000 children have been illegally sent to Russia and Belarus. A United Nations investigation in March found such deportations and transfers amounted to crimes against humanity.
“Today’s sanctions are a strong step in exposing and disrupting the depths Russia is willing to go, to interfere and undermine democracy, and destroy Ukraine’s future through the abhorrent deportation and indoctrination of Ukrainian children,” foreign minister Yvette Cooper said in a statement.
Russia’s embassy in London described the sanctions as groundless and illegitimate, and said allegations about the forced transfers of children had been repeatedly refuted.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Britain has sanctioned more than 3,200 individuals, businesses and ships under its Russia sanctions regime, in an effort to disrupt Russia’s actions and help Ukraine.
Many of those sanctions have been against ships and businesses involved in oil trading, aiming to cut off the energy revenues earned by Moscow, but more recently it has targeted those impacting people.
(Reporting by Sam Tabahriti）
