BRUSSELS – In a coordinated action condemning the mass forced displacement of Ukrainian minors, the European Union rolled out a new round of restrictive measures on Monday, targeting 16 individuals and seven facilities tied to Russia’s alleged campaign of abducting tens of thousands of Ukrainian children.
The newly sanctioned individuals span senior Russian government representatives, military officers overseeing youth training programs, and directors of children’s facilities operating in Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories. Among the named targets is Lilya Shvetsova, head of the so-called “Red Carnation” children’s camp in occupied Crimea. EU regulatory documents outline that Shvetsova oversaw deliberate programming designed to reshape the political and ideological identities of detained Ukrainian children, aligning with broader efforts to force assimilation of the minors.
The seven additional sanctioned entities are institutions suspected of running coercive ideological indoctrination programs for abducted children, or providing military training to the minors for service in Russian armed forces or pro-Moscow separatist militias active inside Ukraine. All sanctioned individuals and groups face immediate asset freezes across EU member states and strict bans on entering or traveling through the bloc.
With this latest update, the total number of individuals and entities placed under EU sanctions for involvement in the child abduction campaign now exceeds 130. EU authorities justify the measures by noting the targeted actors are “responsible for actions undermining or threatening the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine,” a framing that aligns with the bloc’s longstanding position on Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine launched in early 2022.
Since the invasion began, Ukrainian and international authorities have documented that an estimated 20,500 Ukrainian children have been unlawfully deported to Russia or forcibly transferred to Russian-held territories in eastern Ukraine. Multiple investigations confirm that most of these children are systematically stripped of their Ukrainian cultural and national identities, issued Russian citizenship documents, and placed for adoption by Russian families. Others are funneled into state-run camps for forced ideological reeducation or military training ahead of deployment.
Addressing her fellow EU foreign ministers in Brussels ahead of the sanctions endorsement, Latvian Foreign Minister Baiba Braže emphasized the gravity of the campaign. “Russia is trying to erase their identity,” Braže stated. “When you look at the Genocide Convention, it’s one of the features of the genocide crime. So, it’s very serious.”
The forced deportation of Ukrainian children is already the subject of an international arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court, which named Russian President Vladimir Putin as personally responsible for the war crime in its 2023 warrant. Despite ongoing diplomatic and legal pressure, progress on returning the abducted minors has been slow: only roughly 2,200 children have been successfully repatriated to date. International aid workers note that the process of locating, identifying, and bringing children home remains extraordinarily challenging: children taken at very young ages often have little memory of their original families, and physical and identifying details shift dramatically over just a few years, making matches difficult. Even after repatriation, many children face social and integration hurdles in returning to Ukrainian life.
Monday’s sanctions announcement coincided with a major diplomatic gathering hosted by the EU and Canada in Brussels, bringing together the 47-member International Coalition for the Return of Ukrainian Children. The coalition’s core goals are to ramp up collective diplomatic pressure on Moscow to end the abduction campaign, and coordinate global support for the painstaking work of tracing, verifying, and repatriating displaced minors.
Speaking ahead of the coalition meeting, EU Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos framed the child abduction campaign as one of the most egregious atrocities of the ongoing war. “War has really many faces, but stealing the children is really one of the most horrific,” Kos said. “We should stop this, and Russia should pay.”