The European Union, United Kingdom, Canada and a broad international coalition moved on Monday to intensify pressure on Russia over the forcibly deported Ukrainian children, announcing fresh sanctions against officials and institutions while convening a high-level diplomatic gathering in Brussels aimed at accelerating the return of more than 20,500 children taken since Russia's full-scale invasion began in February 2022.
The EU approved asset freezes and travel bans against 23 individuals and institutions — including heads of children's camps, military youth training officials and government representatives in Russian-occupied territories. The UK announced a broader package targeting 85 people and entities, roughly a third of them connected to what Western governments describe as a systematic Russian policy of deportation, forced assimilation and ideological indoctrination of Ukrainian minors. Among the named targets is the Centre for Military and Patriotic Training and Education of Youth — known as the "warrior centre" — where Ukrainian children are reportedly subjected to military instruction and pro-Kremlin ideology. Also sanctioned was Yulia Velichko, the Moscow-installed minister for youth policy in the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic, an occupied region in eastern Ukraine. One EU designation targeted Lilya Shvetsova, head of the "Red Carnation" camp in Russian-annexed Crimea, accused of shaping children's political and ideological views. Canada coordinated parallel measures alongside its EU and UK partners.
Beyond sanctions, representatives of 63 countries and international organisations gathered at European Commission headquarters in Brussels for a high-level meeting of the International Coalition for the Return of Ukrainian Children, a 49-member body co-chaired by Ukraine and Canada and launched following a commitment by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. The UK announced an additional £1.2 million to fund identity tracing and verification efforts, supplementing £2.8 million pledged last December. EU officials acknowledged the complexity of recovery: only around 2,200 children have returned so far, with Russian authorities accused of falsifying identities and erasing records. Most returns have been carried out by parents and relatives at significant personal risk, though neutral states including Turkey and Qatar have quietly mediated around 100 cases.
The backdrop to the meeting was a striking art installation displayed at the European Commission building — a recreation of a Ukrainian teenager's bedroom, heavy with Soviet-era furnishings and the faint sound of distant explosions, designed to evoke the empty rooms of children taken from their families. "It is a really, really traumatic experience when you suddenly are told to believe something opposite to what you knew," said Zhanna Galeyeva of Bird of Light Ukraine, the NGO behind the piece.
Why this matters: The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2023 specifically for the war crime of illegal deportation of Ukrainian children — a charge Moscow contests, insisting the transfers were protective measures. Western officials reject that framing entirely. "Stealing children is not incidental. It is a deliberate Russian policy, a calculated attack on Ukraine's future," said EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas. Latvian Foreign Minister Baiba Braze went further, noting that the forced erasure of a group's children is explicitly listed as a feature of genocide under international law. With most children still unaccounted for and Russian records deliberately obscured, the coalition faces a profound and urgent challenge in simply locating those taken, let alone bringing them home.