UK targets Russia with sanctions for deporting Ukrainian children

This comes directly from the British government.

Reports indicate that over 19,500 Ukrainian children have been forcibly transferred or deported by Russian authorities to Russia and occupied Ukrainian territories.

The sanctions target ten individuals and organizations, including Russian officials and youth groups tied to the Kremlin. Among those sanctioned is the Russian youth military-patriotic group “Yunarmiya,” created by the Russian Ministry of Defense.

Others on the sanctions list include Russian gymnast Nikita Nagorny, leader of the “Yunarmiya,” Igor Kazarezov, who heads the military-patriotic training center “Voin,” and Andrey Sabinov, a so-called deputy of the Kherson regional Duma. Additional names include Serafim Ivanov, head of the “Yunarmiya,” in Kherson, former “Minister of Education” in Zaporizhzhia Olena Shapurova, Valentina Lavryk, who oversees education in occupied Crimea, Tetyana Zavalska, director of a Kherson orphanage aiding in child abductions, and Vitaly Suk, director of the Oleshky boarding school.

“No child should ever be used as a pawn in war, yet President Putin’s targeting of Ukrainian children shows the depths he will go to in his mission to erase Ukraine and its people from the map,” said British Foreign Secretary David Lammy.

• Earlier, Ukraine’s Security Service announced it had charged Sergey Gavrilchuk, head of the Russian “Yunarmiya” in Crimea, with recruiting local schoolchildren for Russia’s war against Ukraine.