Among the designations announced today are Russian officials Ksenia Mishonova, Commissioner for Children’s Rights in the Moscow Region, and Sergey Kravtsov, Minister of Education of Russia…reports Asian Lite News
Fourteen new sanctions have been announced by James Cleverly, the UK Foreign Secretary, in response to Russia’s efforts to dismantle Ukrainian national identity. These sanctions specifically target eleven individuals associated with the coerced expulsion of Ukrainian children.
Today’s announcement comes ahead of the Foreign Secretary’s speech at the UN Security Council (UNSC), where he will highlight the far-reaching implications of Russia’s war, call on Russia to renew the Black Sea Grain Initiative, and outline the need for a just, lasting peace in Ukraine.
Among the designations announced today are Russian officials Ksenia Mishonova, Commissioner for Children’s Rights in the Moscow Region, and Sergey Kravtsov, Minister of Education of Russia.
The role of these individuals in Russia’s deliberate deportation program, aimed at eradicating Ukrainian cultural and national identity, has been highly deceptive. Russian authorities have forcibly removed more than 19,000 Ukrainian children to Russia or temporarily controlled Russian territories.
Many deported children are relocated to a network of re-education camps in illegally annexed Crimea and mainland Russia, where they are exposed to Russia-centric academic, cultural, patriotic, and military education.
This latest package of designations follows the UK’s sanctioning of Russian Children’s Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova in June 2022 for her alleged involvement in the forced transfer and adoption of Ukrainian children.
Also sanctioned today is Russian propagandist, Timofey Sergeitsev, who is responsible for spreading abhorrent propaganda designed to incite violence and hatred towards Ukraine and its people.
Olga Lyubimova, the Russian Culture Minister, is additionally targeted for using her position to support the Russian state’s damaging anti-Ukrainian policies.
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 and international partners have implemented the most severe package of sanctions ever imposed on a major economy.
Since the beginning of the invasion, more than 1,600 individuals and entities have faced sanctions. Among them are 29 banks, holding global assets valued at £1 trillion, over 130 oligarchs with a total net worth exceeding £145 billion, and UK-Russia trade worth over £20 billion.
Later today, in New York, the Foreign Secretary will use his speech during a UK-chaired session of the UNSC to call for a just, lasting peace in Ukraine and highlight Russia’s barbaric forced deportation of Ukrainian children.
ALSO READ-Ramaphosa wins bid to interdict prosecution against him by Zuma