U.S. sanctions Russians over Ukraine kids
UNITED NATIONS — The United States on Thursday announced sanctions against 11 Russians and two re-education facilities reportedly involved in the forced transfer of thousands of Ukrainian children, accusing Moscow of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield made the announcement at a U.N. Security Council meeting the U.S. organized on Ukraine’s national day to put a spotlight on the transfer or deportation of its children as young as 4 months old, not only to Russia but to its ally Belarus and Russian-occupied territories in Ukraine’s east.
“Children are literally being ripped from their homes in the year 2023,” she said. “Russia and its proxies have detained children fleeing violence. They have forced children out of schools and orphanages. And local proxies have tricked or coerced parents into sending their children to so-called ‘summer camps’ only to be cut off from communication and refused to have their children returned to them.”
Deportations of Ukrainian children have been a concern since Russia’s Feb. 24, 2022, invasion of Ukraine. The International Criminal Court increased pressure on Russia when it issued arrest warrants March 17 for President Vladimir Putin and Russian Children’s Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova, accusing them of abducting children from Ukraine.
Estimates vary of the number of children taken from Ukraine, but Thomas-Greenfield said the United States knows that since February 2022 there have been thousands.
She said the U.S. is also aware of reports that Belarus leaders have supported moving Ukrainian children to camps in their country. She quoted the National Anti-Crisis Management Group, saying at least 2,100 Ukrainian youngsters were taken to Belarus from Russian-occupied territory in Ukraine between September 2022 and May 2023.
Ukraine’s U.N. ambassador, Sergiy Kyslytsya told the council that “Ukraine has strong grounds to believe that several hundred thousand Ukrainian children were forcibly and unlawfully taken by Russia, with many still being held against their will.”
He likened Russia’s actions against children to crimes the Nazis committed against children during World War II saying: “Our children are exposed to aggressive brainwashing aimed at changing their consciousness, erasing their Ukrainian identity and preparing obedient soldiers for the Russian army in the future.”
The U.S. State Department later released a list of those subject to a freeze of any U.S. assets including the commissioners for children’s rights in the Russian regions of Belgorod, Kaluga and Rostov and officials in the Chechen Republic for their reported involvement in child deportations.
It also imposed sanctions on a Russian-owned “summer camp” called Artek in Russian-occupied Crimea, which received Ukrainian children who were placed in “patriotic” re-education programs and prevented from returning to their families and the Akhmat Kadyrov Foundation, which the U.S. said is used by the Kadyrov family to oversee re-education of Ukrainian children in camps outside Grozny in the Chechen Republic.
Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia accused the U.S. of launching a proxy war against Russia, backed by Britain and the European Union, to “gain experience in modern-day methods of engaging in armed hostilities,” risking nothing but weapons supplied to Ukraine.
He said Russia was “compelled” to come to the defense of women, children and the elderly and dismissed what he called a host of lies about Russia’s actions including “the lie about our alleged abductions of Ukrainian children, who we are actually saving.”
JET TRAINING
In another development Thursday, the Pentagon said it will start training Ukrainian pilots to fly U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets, beginning at an Air National Guard base in October.
American military officials stress that mmmit takes years of training to be able to field F-16 squadrons, limiting the impact the aircraft will have on Ukraine’s defense for the near future.
The training will take place at Morris Air National Guard base in Tucson, Ariz. The pilots will first undergo English instruction at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio to bring their fluency up to the level needed to operate the aircraft, starting next month, said Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman.
For experienced pilots, training can range around five months, Ryder said.