LONDON: Britain on Wednesday imposed sanctions on 11 more individuals and entities affiliated with the Russian state, targeting those involved in what it said were Moscow’s attempts to forcibly deport and indoctrinate Ukraine’s children.
Ukraine says that more than 19,500 children have been taken to Russia or Russian-occupied territory during the war without the consent of family or guardians, calling the abductions a war crime that meets the UN treaty definition of genocide. Moscow has said it was protecting vulnerable children from a war zone.
“The Kremlin’s policy of forced deportations, indoctrination and militarization of Ukrainian children is despicable,” foreign minister David Lammy said in a statement, setting out Britain’s latest round of sanctions against Russia for the war in Ukraine.
Organizations such as the Akhmat Kadyrov Foundation which runs re-education programs for Ukrainian children and teenagers, subjecting them to militaristic training, and its president, Aymani Nesievna Kadyrova, are among those targeted, the statement said. The sanctions include asset freezes, travel bans and other penalties.
The Russian embassy in London said the sanctions were unlawful and based on “unfounded claims” from Ukraine about the forcible transfer of children.
“We call upon the UK authorities to refrain from making baseless accusations in future and to avoid hindering the efforts aimed at protecting the rights and interests of minors,” it said in a post on social media.
In March, a report by the United Nations Human Rights Office said Russia had inflicted unimaginable suffering on millions of Ukrainian children and violated their rights since its full scale invasion of Ukraine began in 2022.
Kadyrova’s son Ramzan, head of Russia’s Muslim Chechnya republic who has sent large contingents of troops to boost Russian ranks in Ukraine, published a statement in Russian via his channel on Telegram messaging app in defense of his mother.
“She always helps victims of war and supports the poor and disadvantaged around the world,” said the translated comments, which also said that she was not involved in politics.
“These actions prove that the West is guided neither by morality nor by law, but acts out of hatred and Russophobia ... This is the lowest level of rotten Western politics,” he added.
In March 2023, the International Criminal Court issued warrants for the arrest of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his children’s rights commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova related to the abduction of Ukrainian children. Russia denounced the warrants as “outrageous and unacceptable.”
UK sanctions target Russians linked to deportation of Ukrainian children
https://arab.news/rsevw
UK sanctions target Russians linked to deportation of Ukrainian children
- “The Kremlin’s policy of forced deportations, indoctrination and militarization of Ukrainian children is despicable,” Lammy said
- The Russian embassy in London said the sanctions were unlawful and based on “unfounded claims” from Ukraine about the forcible transfer of children
US military kills 6 in strike on alleged drug boat in the Eastern Pacific
- Sunday’s attack brought the death toll to at least 157 people since the Trump administration began targeting those it calls “narcoterrorists” in small vessels in early September
WASHINGTON: The US military said it killed six men Sunday in a strike on an alleged drug-smuggling vessel in the eastern Pacific Ocean as part of the Trump administration’s campaign against alleged traffickers.
Sunday’s attack brought the death toll to at least 157 people since the Trump administration began targeting those it calls “narcoterrorists” in small vessels in early September.
As with most of the military’s statements on the more than 40 known strikes in the Eastern Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea, US Southern Command said it targeted alleged drug traffickers along known smuggling routes. The military did not provide evidence that the vessel was ferrying drugs. It posted a video on X that showed a small boat being blown up as it floated on the water.
President Donald Trump has said the US is in “armed conflict” with cartels in Latin America and has justified the attacks as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs into the United States. But his administration has offered little evidence to support its claims of killing “narcoterrorists.”
In a meeting with Latin American leaders on Saturday, Trump encouraged them to join the US in taking military action against drug-trafficking cartels and transnational gangs, which he said pose an “unacceptable threat” to the region’s national security.
To that end, Ecuador and the United States conducted military operations this past week against organized crime groups in the South American country.
With Saturday’s gathering, Trump aimed to demonstrate that he remains committed to focusing US foreign policy on the Western Hemisphere, even while waging a war on Iran that has had repercussions across the Middle East.
Critics have questioned the overall legality of the boat strikes as well as their effectiveness, in part because the fentanyl behind many fatal overdoses is typically trafficked to the US over land from Mexico, where it is produced with chemicals imported from China and India.
The boat strikes also drew intense criticism following the revelation that the military killed survivors of the very first boat attack with a follow-up strike. The Trump administration and many Republican lawmakers said it was legal and necessary, while Democratic lawmakers and legal experts said the killings were murder, if not a war crime.
