US imposes sanctions over forced deportation and transfer of Ukraine children by Russia

The US State Department on Thursday imposed sanctions on 13 people and entities it said are reportedly connected to the forced deportation and transfer of Ukraine’s children, as Washington ramps up pressure on Moscow over its invasion. The United States is also taking steps to impose visa restrictions on three Russia-installed purported authorities over their involvement in human rights abuses of Ukrainian minors, the State Department said in a statement. The sanctions coincided with Ukraine’s Independence Day. “The United States will not stand by as Russia carries out these war crimes and crimes against humanity,” US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield told a UN Security Council meeting on Ukraine in New York on Thursday. Ukraine’s government estimates that Russian authorities have deported and/or forcibly displaced more than 19,500 children from their homes since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Russia’s UN ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, told the Security Council that the Western countries were lying about alleged abductions of Ukrainian children, adding that Russia was actually saving them. Moscow says its programme of bringing children from Ukraine into Russian territory is to protect orphans and children abandoned in the conflict zone. Among those hit with sanctions on Thursday was Artek, which the State Department said is a Russian government-owned “summer camp” located in Russia-occupied Crimea. The State Department said Artek has received Ukrainian children who are then placed in “‘patriotic’ re-education programmes” and are prevented from returning to their families. Artek’s director was also among those sanctioned on Thursday. Ukraine flag raised in Crimea, says Kyiv, amid attacks on its Independence Day Also targeted was the adviser to the governor of Belgorod, the commissioners for children’s rights in the Kaluga and Rostov regions, and the chairman of the government of the Chechen Republic, among others. “The United States continues to demonstrate its commitment to promoting accountability for the atrocities and other abuses inflicted by Russia on the people of Ukraine,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement. The ICC issued arrest warrants in March for Putin and his children’s commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova, accusing them of illegally deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine – a war crime. “We’re going to keep calling attention to it, keep identifying the individuals and institutions involved, and keep a highlight on it until these kids are reunited with their families or in a community that reflects their proper upbringing. So we’re just going to keep at it,” James O’Brien, head of the State Department’s Office of Sanctions Coordination, said. The State Department on Thursday said Russia uses a variety of methods to transfer children from Ukraine, including taking them from state institutions, deporting children during “filtration” operations where Ukrainian civilians are evaluated for their perceived threat to Russia’s occupation, and by bringing them to supposed recreation camps in Crimea and Russia. Thursday’s action marks the latest round of sanctions Washington has imposed on Moscow since its 2022 invasion of Ukraine, which has killed tens of thousands of people and reduced cities to rubble. Meanwhile the United States’ top general said on Thursday that Ukraine was likely to get F-16 fighter jets soon, and said its counteroffensive against the Russian invasion has been going slowly and had partial success. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley said it was too early to say whether the counteroffensive had failed. “F-16s. That is moving forward, actually. So there’s a training programme in place and they’ll likely receive F-16s … in the not-too-distant future,” Milley said in an exclusive interview with Jordan’s Al-Mamlaka public service television news channel. Russian ‘General Armageddon’ Surovikin, not seen since Wagner mutiny, ‘sacked’ Ukrainian President Volodomyr Volodymyr Zelensky recently said he had received pledges from Denmark and the Netherlands to deliver F-16s, saying they would strengthen Ukraine’s air defences and help its counteroffensive against Russian forces. Milley said the counteroffensive faced heavy Russian reinforcements with many months to prepare minefields, tank ditches and dragon’s teeth tank obstacles “in a very complex set of defensive preparations that the Ukrainians are fighting through”. “The Ukrainians have a significant amount of combat power remaining; this is not over yet,” he said. “So I think it’s frankly too early to say whether it [has] succeeded or failed.” “Clearly it’s had partial success to date. Now the speed at which the offensive has been undertaking is slower than the planners had thought,” Milley added in the interview in Amman. Ukrainian forces were being trained intensively in various parts of Europe on “command and control of offensive formations and combined arms manoeuvre and to break complex obstacles that will bolster its capabilities,” the four-star US Army general said. “Again, it’s bloody, it’s long and it’s slow. And we had predicted that several months ago,” he said. Washington was still deliberating providing long-range Army Tactical Missile Systems known as ATACMS that Ukraine wants and which reach behind enemy lines, including Russia, Milley told Al-Mamlaka. “They’ve gotten long-range artillery with the Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS) and the Brits have provided other types of capabilities that other countries have as well. So they’ve gotten a lot of artillery,” he said. Ukrainian ‘abortion fairy’ helps female refugees in Poland “But the ATACMS is a controversial topic. And for a lot of reasons, they haven’t received those yet. They’re still on the table. President Biden has not said no or yes at this time.” Milley, who is expected to retire later this year, again cautioned against the likelihood of an outright Ukrainian military victory in the near term while highlighting the possibility of a political solution to end the fighting. “It’s an offensive that is been going on for about, I guess, eight weeks or so. It’s very bloody, slow, high casualty-producing and its very difficult. So the idea of militarily kicking out two or three hundred thousand Russian troops is going to be very difficult and challenging. “A different way of getting out of this is through negotiations and may be that will happen too.”