UK imposes sanctions on 29 Russians linked to abduction of Ukrainian children
The United Kingdom imposed sanctions on 85 Russians, 29 of whom are connected to the forced abduction, ideological indoctrination, and militarization of Ukrainian children, the British government announced on its official website.
Among those targeted is an entity known as the "Warrior Center," a military-patriotic youth training facility where Ukrainian children are given paramilitary instruction and exposed to pro-Kremlin ideology.
Sanctions were also imposed on Yulia Velichko, the so-called "youth policy minister" of the self-proclaimed “Luhansk People's Republic”, who facilitated Russian programs to deport Ukrainian children. Under those programs, children from temporarily occupied territories were issued Russian passports and subjected to pro-Russian indoctrination.
U.K. Sanctions Minister Stephen Doughty announced an additional £1.2 million ($1.6 million) in British funding for a specialized center that helps identify and locate Ukrainian children abducted by Russia.
The remaining 56 individuals sanctioned are linked to Russian propaganda operations — specifically, authors, translators, and editors working for the Social Design Agency (SDA), which produces disinformation content targeting support for Ukraine and interfering in elections in Armenia. The SDA operates under the direct control of the Russian Presidential Administration.
Another sanctioned entity, ANO Dialog, also carried out assignments for Russian authorities and cooperated with Russian intelligence services, according to the U.K. government.
"The UK’s support for Ukraine remains ironclad and we will continue to work alongside our allies to support every effort to identify and trace the children that have been cruelly taken from their communities and bring them home," British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said.
Abduction of Ukrainian children
According to the Bring Kids Back platform, Russia has abducted more than 20,000 children from Ukraine since the start of the full-scale invasion. Of those, 2,133 have been returned.
On March 17, 2023, the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russia's Children's Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova on suspicion of unlawfully abducting Ukrainian children from occupied territories to Russia.
In July 2023, Ukraine's Prosecutor General's Office opened an investigation into the Belarusian Red Cross's alleged involvement in the abduction of Ukrainian children.