The United States has announced new sanctions against individuals and entities in Russia, mostly accused of their involvement in the removal of children from Ukraine.

“The US will not stand by while Russia commits these war crimes and these crimes against humanity,” US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said in announcing the sanctions during a meeting of the UN Security Council, which coincided with the anniversary of Ukraine’s independence.

The new sanctions target 11 Russians, mostly regional children’s rights officials, whose US assets will be frozen. They also concern two entities: the Artek “camp” in Crimea, a Ukrainian peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014, and a “re-education” camp for children in Chechnya.

The State Department will also impose visa restrictions on three Russian officials accused of involvement in violating the rights of Ukrainian minors.

“Russia and its proxies arrested children fleeing violence, forced children out of schools and orphanages, and local proxies tricked or coerced parents into sending their children to so-called summer camps and refused to return them,” said Linda Thomas-Greenfield, referring to these camps “brainwashing” children and even training soldiers.

“You hear Russian officials say that these transfers of children are part of an operation to remove them on humanitarian grounds. But this is a gross distortion of reality and a futile attempt to justify the unjustifiable,” he insisted.

The American ambassador also spoke about information that Belarusian authorities allegedly helped transport children from Ukraine to camps in Belarus.

The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin for the “illegal displacement” of thousands of children from Ukraine as early as February 2022 — charges Moscow denies.