September sanctions wave: US and Canada target individuals and legal entities involved in the deportation of Ukrainian children

September 2026 marked a significant escalation in international efforts to hold individuals and legal entities accountable for the illegal deportation and forcible transfer of Ukrainian children, with coordinated legal and sanctions mechanisms deployed by the United States, Canada, and European allies.

Throughout September, the illegal deportation, forcible transfer, and militarisation of Ukrainian children remained in focus for state institutions, international organisations, and human rights initiatives.

The most profound structural shift came from Washington. On 18 September, US President Donald Trump signed into law H.R. 5334, the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026. The new statute creates a legal mechanism by explicitly defining the forced deportation of children as a serious human rights abuse, categorising it alongside unjust detainment, torture and enforced disappearances.

Crucially, the US law targets not only direct perpetrators but also those “indirectly” involved, effectively threatening sanctions against the vast network of Russian officials, guardianship structures, and transport operators facilitating child removals.

The initiative of the president of Ukraine, Bring Kids Back UA, called this move “a significant step towards accountability for Russia’s deportation and forcible transfer of Ukrainian children”. The law does not automatically designate specific individuals or organisations. It creates a statutory mechanism that must now be translated into concrete decisions, the initiative noted.

Related: Only 5% of those responsible for deporting Ukrainian children face global sanctions

Earlier in the month, Canada, which co-chairs the International Coalition for the Return of Ukrainian Children, added eight senior figures to its sanctions list. Those sanctioned include:

• Aleksandr Kurenkov, Russia’s Minister of Emergency Situations;
• Grigory Gurov, head of Rosmolodezh, the Federal Agency for Youth Affairs;
• Artur Orlov, chairman of the “Movement of the First” youth organisation;
• Denis Chernobay, head of the movement’s occupied-Donetsk regional branch;
• Vladimir Khromov, an adviser in the office of Russia’s presidential commissioner for children’s rights;
• Elena Milskaya, head of the board of trustees of Russia’s “National Centre for Assistance to Missing and Affected Children”;
• and two further officials, Alexandra Kulgina and Vitaly Suk.

These measures were followed on 28 September by a new European Union sanctions package. The EU designated 10 individuals and 17 entities responsible for the systematic deportation and ideological indoctrination of Ukrainian children, targeting occupation-installed education officials and state-backed entities like the Moscow City Tourism Committee.

The package also includes Songdowon International Children’s Camp, a state-operated institution in North Korea. The camp participates in organised programmes involving the transfer of Ukrainian children from temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine in coordination with Moscow, and with the aim of promoting pro-Russian narratives.

The European Union has imposed sanctions against the following individuals responsible for the illegal deportation, forced transfer, and indoctrination of Ukrainian children:

• Oleg Ivanovich Sladkevich. Date of birth: 22.10.1970. Function: Director of Horlivka School No 42, so-called “Donetsk People’s Republic”, deputy leader of the “United Russia” party in the Horlivka City Council in the so-called “Donetsk People’s Republic”, Ukraine.
• Rustam Nurgaliyevich Minnikhanov. Date of birth: 1.3.1957. Function: President of the Republic of Tatarstan.
• Aleksandr Mikhailovich Kalyagin. Date of birth: 5.4.1972. Function: Minister of Education and Science of Zaporizhzhia Oblast.
• Oleg Vladimirovich Trofimov. Date of birth: 2.3.1986. Function: Acting Minister of Education and Science of the so-called “Donetsk People’s Republic”.
• Irina Viktorivna Kravchenko. Date of birth: 18.5.1979. Function: Commissioner for Children’s Rights in the Russian-occupied Kherson region of Ukraine (occupation administration).
• Ali Osmanovich Chomaev. Function: Founder and director of the children’s camp “Adel”, Dombay, Karachay-Cherkess Republic, Russia.
• Maksim Nikolayevich Shvets. Date of birth: 5.9.1993. Function: Minister of Sports and Tourism of the so-called “Donetsk People’s Republic”.
• Renard Vladimirovich Kutkovsky. Date of birth: 1.5.1983. Function: Deputy Head of the Administration of the City of Yalta in the so-called “Republic of Crimea”, Ukraine; Former Head of the Department of Education and Youth Policy of the Administration of the city of Yalta in the so-called “Republic of Crimea” (from 2015 to 2024).
• Anna Stanislavovna Molchanova. Date of birth: 29.1.1989. Function: Head of the regional branch of the “Movement of the First” in the City of Sevastopol.
• Svetlana Edislavovna Bespalova. Date of birth: 15.4.1969. Function: Deputy Minister of Education, Science and Youth of the so-called “Republic of Crimea”.

Furthermore, the European Union has applied restrictive measures to the following legal entities and organisations facilitating these crimes:

• Songdowon International Children’s Camp;
• All-Russian Children’s Centre “Ocean”;
• Preobrazhensky Defence and Sports Centre;
• Sports and Recreation Complex “Romashka”;
• The Moscow City Tourism Committee;
• LLC “Art-Quest”;
• LLC Children’s Health Complex “Sputnik”;
• Children’s camp “Sunny Beach”;
• FSBI “DOP ‘Raduga'”;
• LLC “Centre for Children and Youth Programmes ‘Mir'”;
• LLC “Leto”;
• LLC “Otdykh-71”;
• LLC Sanatorium “Vita”;
• LLC Children’s Health Complex “Signal”;
• LLC Children’s Centre “Kotlostroitel”;
• The Centre for the Study of the Youth Environment and Monitoring of Networks;
• Children’s Health and Education Centre “Brigantine”.

For reference: The International Coalition for the Return of Ukrainian Children was launched in Kyiv in February 2024 by Ukraine and Canada. Estimates suggest that more than one million Ukrainian children remain in the temporarily occupied territories under Russian control. The exact number of those deported and forcibly transferred remains unknown, as only Russia knows how many Ukrainian children it has abducted and refuses to disclose this data.

Ukrainian human rights defenders emphasise that the deportation and forcible transfer of Ukrainian children are not a side effect of war but a component of Russia’s systemic genocidal policy, aimed at erasing Ukrainian identity and severing children’s ties to Ukraine.

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