Britain on Monday slapped sanctions on a string of Russian officials over the forced deportation of Ukrainianchildren.
Eleven individuals will be hit with asset freezes and travel bans following their alleged involvement in the appalling practice.
The Foreign Office said among those being “designated” were Sergey Kravtsov, Minister of Education of Russia, and Ksenia Mishonova, Commissioner for Children’s Rights in the Moscow region.
“These individuals have played an insidious role in Russia’s calculated programme of deportation, designed to erase Ukrainian cultural and national identity,” it said in a statement.
The UK Government estimates that more than 19,000 Ukrainian children have been forcibly deported to Russia or Russian-occupied territory as Vladimir Putin’s war stretches into its 17th month.
Many deported children are sent to re-education camps in illegally annexed Crimea and mainland Russia, according to the Foreign Office, where they are exposed to “Russia-centric academic, cultural, patriotic, and military education”.
Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, said: “In his chilling programme of forced child deportation, and the hate-filled propaganda spewed by his lackeys, we see Putin’s true intention - to wipe Ukraine from the map.
“Today’s sanctions hold those who prop up Putin’s regime to account, including those who would see Ukraine destroyed, its national identity dissolved, and its future erased.”
The UK sanctioned Russian Children’s Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova in June 2022 for her alleged involvement in the forced transfer and adoption of Ukrainian children.
The latest designations came ahead of Mr Cleverly addressing the UN Security Council in New York where he was also due to address Russia halting its participation in the Black Sea grain export deal and the wider conflict.
It added that more than 1,600 individuals and entities have been sanctioned since the start of the invasion in February 2022, including 29 banks with global assets said to be worth £1 trillion, over 130 oligarchs with a combined net worth estimated of over £145 billion, and more than £20 billion worth of UK-Russia trade.
