<\/p>\n
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, right, arrives for a meeting of EU foreign ministers at the European Council building in Brussels, Monday, May 11, 2026.<\/p>\n
Virginia Mayo\/AP<\/p>\n
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, right, speaks with the media as he arrives for a meeting of EU foreign ministers at the European Council building in Brussels, Monday, May 11, 2026.<\/p>\n
Virginia Mayo\/AP<\/p>\n
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha speaks with the media as he arrives for a meeting of EU foreign ministers at the European Council building in Brussels, Monday, May 11, 2026.<\/p>\n
Virginia Mayo\/AP<\/p>\n
BRUSSELS (AP) \u2014 The European Union on Monday imposed sanctions on 16 officials accused of helping Russia to abduct tens of thousands of children from Ukraine and force many to change their identities or be put up for adoption.<\/p>\n
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Sanctions were also slapped on seven centers suspected of indoctrinating the children or training them to serve in the armed forces, either for Russia or pro-Russian militias inside Ukraine.<\/p>\n
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Over 130 people and \u201centities\u201d are now under EU sanctions over the abductions.<\/p>\n
EU headquarters said the asset freezes and travel bans were imposed because the officials and centers are deemed \u201cresponsible for actions undermining or threatening the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, an estimated 20,500 children have been unlawfully deported or forcibly transferred to Russia or Russian-held territories in eastern Ukraine.<\/p>\n
EU officials say many of the children are stripped of their Ukrainian identity and culture, given Russian passports and put up for adoption. Some are forced into schools for indoctrination or into military camps.<\/p>\n
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\u201cRussia is trying to erase their identity,\u201d Latvian Foreign Minister Baiba Bra\u017ee said Monday at a meeting with EU counterparts in Brussels, where the sanctions were endorsed. \u201cWhen you look at the Genocide Convention, it\u2019s one of the features of the genocide crime. So, it\u2019s very serious.\u201d<\/p>\n
The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes, accusing him of personal responsibility for the abductions.<\/p>\n
Around 2,200 children have been returned, but identifying them is complicated. Children taken at a young age can be difficult to recognize just a few years later. Getting them home is a harrowing task, and some children are not necessarily welcomed when they return.<\/p>\n
The EU on Monday was hosting, alongside Canada, a meeting of the 47-country International Coalition for the Return of Ukrainian Children to increase diplomatic pressure on Russia and rally support for work to verify and trace those who are taken.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWar has really many faces, but stealing the children is really one of the most horrific,\u201d EU Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos said ahead of the gathering. \u201cWe should stop this, and Russia should pay.\u201d<\/p>\n
The officials targeted by Monday\u2019s sanctions include the heads of children\u2019s camps, government representatives and military officers in charge of youth training.<\/p>\n
One of the 16 named was Lilya Shvetsova, head of the \u201cRed Carnation\u201d camp in occupied Crimea. The EU said she supervised \u201cactivities aimed at shaping the political and ideological views of children present at the facility, including Ukrainian children.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Like others on the list, she was determined to be \u201csupporting and implementing actions and policies contributing to the deportation, forced transfer, forced assimilation, including indoctrination, or militarized education of Ukrainian minors.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, right, arrives for a meeting of EU foreign ministers at the European Council…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":79745,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[104],"tags":[211,210,71,19378,21154,28593,28591,28592,42446,1887],"class_list":["post-79744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brussels","tag-belgium","tag-brussels","tag-europe","tag-marta-kos","tag-package-100024-ap-online","tag-package-100373-mc-complete-state-national","tag-product-30598-ap-national-news-report-a-wire","tag-product-32502-ap-online-europe-news","tag-ukraine-children-abducted-russia-war-europe","tag-vladimir-putin"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79744\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}