UK sanctions seven Russians over deportation of Ukrainian children

The United Kingdom has imposed sanctions on seven people involved in Russia's programme of forced deportation and "re-education" of Ukrainian children.

Source: Ukrainska Pravda.Zhyttia (Life)

Details: The list includes the chairman of the board of Russia's Movement of the First, heads of its branches in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, and the chair of the board of trustees of Russia's National Centre for Assistance to Missing and Affected Children.

Bring Kids Back UA, a Ukrainian government-led effort to bring Ukrainian children home from temporarily Russian-occupied territories, told Ukrainska Pravda.Zhyttia about the people included on the sanctions list.

Who has been sanctioned?

The list includes Artur Orlov, chairman of the board of the Movement of the First, a Russian state-backed social movement for children and young people. Orlov is a Russian officer, tank battalion commander and combatant in the war against Ukraine. Russian ruler Vladimir Putin appointed him to head the movement in 2024.

Five heads of the movement's regional branches in the temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts and Crimea have also been sanctioned:

• Denis Chernobai
• Riyal Aliyev
• Aleksei Lavrentyev
• Viktoria Kostromina
• Yekaterina Kozyr.

Russia established the Movement of the First in 2022 on Putin's initiative as one of the tools for militarising children. According to a report by the OSCE Moscow Mechanism expert mission, it has more than 344,000 members in the occupied territories alone.

The list also includes Yelena Milskaya, chair of the board of trustees of Russia's National Centre for Assistance to Missing and Affected Children.

Defence Intelligence of Ukraine has information that in October 2022 she used the centre's volunteers as cover for the mass abduction and illegal deportation of Ukrainian children, including orphans, from the occupied territories of Ukraine to Krasnodar Krai via Crimea.

At least three of the seven people – Orlov, Chernobai and Milskaya – have been sanctioned by Canada, while Milskaya has also been sanctioned by the EU.

"The Movement of the First in the occupied territories is not about children's clubs. It is a conveyor belt through which Russia turns Ukrainian children into Russian soldiers for a war against their own homeland. Britain has named those who run this conveyor belt from Crimea to Luhansk. We thank the United Kingdom: everyone who commits crimes against Ukrainian children must know that they will be held personally accountable," said Maksym Maksymov, head of Bring Kids Back UA.

The UK government said millions of Ukrainian children in the occupied territories are subjected to Kremlin propaganda programmes, including weapons training and drone operation. Their aim is to strip children of their Ukrainian identity and prepare them to serve the state attacking their homeland.

Those on the sanctions list have had their assets frozen, been banned from entering the UK, faced restrictions on trust services and been prohibited from serving as directors of companies.

Background:

• Defence Intelligence of Ukraine previously named 10 people involved in the militarisation of Ukrainian children in the occupied territories. They included Artur Orlov, Aleksei Lavrentyev, Riyal Aliyev, Yekaterina Kozyr and Viktoria Kostromina.
• The Russian curriculum is being imposed on almost 2,000 schools in Ukraine's temporarily occupied territories, shaping the education of over 582,000 children. Schools are introducing new subjects that emphasise "patriotic" indoctrination and cultivate loyalty to the Russian state ideology.
• Russian forces are actively militarising children in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, including through Yunarmiya and cadet classes. Another tool is the Movement of the First, which regularly holds military-style games and public ceremonies for handing out Russian IDs. More than 340,000 children and young people from the occupied territories are among its participants.

Subscribe on Patreon to back our journalism long-term.