The Council of the European Union on May 11 imposed sanctions against people and legal entities responsible for the abduction of Ukrainian children from the temporarily occupied territories.
Points of attention
- EU implements sanctions against individuals and legal entities involved in the abduction of Ukrainian children from occupied territories.
- Over 20,500 Ukrainian children have been illegally deported and abducted by the Russian Federation since the onset of the war against Ukraine.
EU approves new sanctions against Russia for abduction of Ukrainian children
The new sanctions include 16 more individuals and seven legal entities responsible for the systematic illegal deportation, forced displacement, forced assimilation, including militarized education, of Ukrainian minors, as well as their illegal adoption and deportation to the Russian Federation and temporarily occupied territories.
It is estimated that since the beginning of Russia's war against Ukraine, the Russian Federation has deported and abducted nearly 20,500 Ukrainian children.
The list of entities included in the list includes federal state institutions affiliated with the Russian Ministry of Education, such as the All-Russian Children's Centers "Orlyonok", "Alye Parusa", and "Smena".
As noted, they organize programs for Ukrainian children, within the framework of which they are subjected to pro-Russian ideological indoctrination, in particular through "patriotic events, ideological education, and military-oriented activities."
The statement emphasized that other organizations included in the list receive Ukrainian minors transported from the occupied territories of Ukraine and subject them to programs that correspond to Russian state policy, in particular, political ideological indoctrination and activities that correspond to educational programs designed for basic military training.
The sanctions were announced on the occasion of a high-level meeting co-chaired by the European Union, Ukraine, and Canada, which aims to plan concrete steps to return children abducted by Russia to Ukraine and hold Russia accountable.
To learn more about Russia's abduction of Ukrainian children, watch the documentary "Damaged Childhood," created by Ukrainian independent media and video production company Online.UA:
