The Council of the European Union announced the expansion of its Russia sanctions on September 28, targeting 10 individuals and 17 organizations that Brussels links to the systematic unlawful deportation and forced transfer of Ukrainian children to Russia and to temporarily occupied territories.
The highest-ranking figure on the new list is Rustam Minnikhanov, the head of Tatarstan. In the Council's decision he is named as one of the senior Russian regional leaders involved in the forced removal of Ukrainian children, who, in particular, were placed at the Miras camp in Tatarstan.
Minnikhanov's press service called the sanctions an attempt by the West to discredit Russia's spiritual and moral values, which it said are aimed at protecting and caring for children.
Alongside Minnikhanov, the restrictions hit heads of education and sports ministries in the occupied Ukrainian territories, as well as the leadership of children's camps and schools, for facilitating the ideological indoctrination of children.
Among the organizations on the list are the all-Russian children's center Okean in Vladivostok, the Raduga children's health center run by the Russian presidential property management department, the Moscow tourism committee, and the Romashka and Sputnik camps in the Rostov region, Solnechny Bereg in Dagestan, and Vita and Signal in the Krasnodar region. The international children's camp Sondowon in the North Korean city of Wonsan was included separately.
Sondowon is described in the Council's decision as a state institution that receives Ukrainian children from annexed territories. The EU assesses that the North Korean camp takes part in organized programs linked to the transfer of Ukrainian children, in coordination with Russia and with the aim of promoting pro-Russian narratives. The trips are formally presented as cultural exchange, but according to the EU, children there are exposed to pro-Russian propaganda and drawn into events with elements of paramilitary training.
The sanctions provide for the freezing of assets in the European Union and, for individuals, a ban on entry and transit through EU territory. EU citizens and companies are also barred from providing money and other economic resources to the listed individuals and organizations.
The EU Council notes that more than 20,500 Ukrainian children have been deported and forcibly removed since the start of Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine.
Russian authorities deny accusations of the forced deportation of Ukrainian children and say they were evacuated from combat zones for their safety. Vladimir Putin has said Russia does not prevent children from returning to Ukraine if they have relatives there.
In March 2023, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Vladimir Putin and children's rights commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova. The court believes they may bear responsibility for the war crime of unlawful deportation and transfer of children from occupied areas of Ukraine to Russia. Russian authorities, who do not recognize the ICC's jurisdiction, called the court's decision legally null and void.