Britain has imposed sanctions on 85 individuals and organizations involved in the forced deportation, indoctrination and militarization of Ukrainian children, as well as those involved in recent attempts to interfere in the upcoming elections in Armenia.
Points of attention
- Britain has imposed sanctions on 85 individuals and organizations connected to Russia's systematic campaign of forcibly deporting and militarizing Ukrainian children.
- The British government allocated £1.2 million to search for and verify illegally deported Ukrainian children, underscoring the seriousness of the situation.
Britain adopts new sanctions against Russia for abduction of Ukrainian children
This was reported by the press service of the British government.
The sanctions list includes 29 individuals linked to Russia's systematic campaign to forcibly deport and militarize Ukrainian children, as well as another 56 individuals responsible for the Kremlin's information war.
The British government has also allocated additional funding of £1.2 million to search for and verify illegally deported Ukrainian children.
This contains:
£600,000 for the Verification Centre, which is searching for these children, and provided strong evidence to the UN Commission of Inquiry to support its findings that Russia's actions constitute crimes against humanity.
£600,000 for a Ukrainian-led tracing programme that is searching for and locating thousands of Ukrainian children illegally deported by Russia.
Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said that Britain will continue to support Ukraine and work with allies to support all efforts to identify, locate and return Ukrainian children abducted by Russia.
The UK will not stand idly by while Putin seeks to sow lies and pro-Kremlin narratives abroad. Today’s sanctions are a significant step in exposing and undermining the depths to which Russia is prepared to go to interfere and undermine democracy, and to destroy Ukraine’s future through the horrific deportation and indoctrination of Ukrainian children.
The government noted that this package of sanctions is one of the toughest yet adopted by Britain to combat "Russia's hostile activities" and is aimed at combating malicious information warfare campaigns.
The new measures target 49 people working for the Social Design Agency (SDA), including writers, translators and video makers responsible for spreading false Kremlin propaganda. The government said the SDA was tasked and funded by the Kremlin to carry out a series of interference operations aimed at undermining democracy and weakening support for Ukraine.
It is also noted that the SDA planned campaigns "which were almost certainly carried out on behalf of the Russian presidential administration," in particular, seeking to create pro-Russian organizations in Armenia and influence a change of government in favor of pro-Russian figures.
In addition, the British government believes that the sanctioned organization ANO Dialog "carries out tasks for the Russian presidential administration and collaborates with Russian intelligence services to conduct campaigns of malicious influence on behalf of the Russian government." It is noted that ANO Dialog also coordinated with Russian intelligence plans to interfere in Armenia's domestic politics.
The following were also subject to sanctions:
The Center for Military Sports Training and Patriotic Education of Youth, known as the "Warrior Center," where Ukrainian children undergo military training and promote pro-Kremlin ideology.
"Minister" of Youth Policy of the "LPR" Yulia Velychko, for her role in implementing state initiatives to deport and indoctrinate Ukrainian children, including issuing Russian passports to children from TOT and organizing programs that introduce them to Russian ideology.
