The UK on Monday imposed sanctions on a number of Russian figures, including a minister and a well-known journalist, accused of involvement in Moscow’s “forced deportation of Ukrainian children”.
The new measures, announced by London ahead of British diplomatic chief James Cleverly’s intervention at the UN Security Council, target a total of 14 individuals and organizations in response to “Russia’s attempts to destroy Ukrainian national identity,” the British government said in a press release.
Of those targets, subject to UK residency bans and asset freezes, 11 are more specifically aimed at “deporting children”, which Russian authorities have accused, but deny, of.
Specifically targeted are Minister of Education Sergei Kravtsov and journalist Anton Krassovski, a former liberal opposition figure and LGBT+ rights activist who has now elected to power. Last year, the latter called for the “burning” of Ukrainian children via the antenna of the Russian broadcaster RT, which earned him his dismissal.
AFP
Russia is accused of taking thousands of children to areas in Ukraine it controls, as well as to its own territory. Vladimir Putin is personally indicted by the International Criminal Court, based in The Hague in the Netherlands, on war crimes charges for the “illegal deportation” of thousands of Ukrainian children during the Moscow-Kiev conflict. Allegations denied by Moscow.
At least 19,000 Ukrainian children have been affected, according to London.
“With his horrific program of forcibly deporting children and the hateful propaganda of his lackeys, we recognize Putin’s true intent: to erase Ukraine from the map,” Cleverly said in the statement.
Russia’s culture minister, Olga Lyoubimova, is also being sanctioned by London, more generally for her “support of the Russian state’s anti-Ukrainian policies.”
In total, the UK has imposed sanctions on over 1,600 individuals and organizations in connection with the Russian invasion of Ukraine.