UK announces new wave of sanctions over ‘barbaric’ treatment of children

London, Jun 16 (EFE).- The United Kingdom announced Thursday a new wave of sanctions against Russia over the “barbaric treatment” of children in Ukraine.

The new sanctions target Russia’s Children’s Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova for her “alleged involvement in the forced transfer and adoption of Ukrainian children.”

Lvova-Belova has been accused of allowing for 2,000 vulnerable children from the Luhansk and Donetsk regions to be violently taken away from their homes and mobilizing a policy to facilitate their forced adoptions in Russia.

“Today we are targeting the enablers and perpetrators of Putin’s war who have brought untold suffering to Ukraine, including the forced transfer and adoption of children,” UK foreign secretary Liz Truss said in a statement.

The measures also include the sanctioning of Russian Orthodox Church leader Patriarch Kirill for his “prominent support” and “endorsement” of president Vladimir Putin’s military aggression in Ukraine.

A recent effort by the European Union to sanction Russia’s most senior religious figure was shot down by Hungarian opposition to the measure.

The deputy of the Moscow city Duma, the regional parliament, Sergey Savostyanov, has also been sanctioned for “publicly supporting” the war in Ukraine along with four colonels of the 64th Separate Motorised Rifle Brigade, which the UK said was “known to have killed, raped, and tortured civilians in Bucha, have also been sanctioned for the Brigade’s role in Ukraine.”

“We will not tire of defending freedom and democracy, and keeping up the pressure on Putin, until Ukraine succeeds,” Truss said. EFE

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