EU foreign ministers are expected to adopt further sanctions on Monday over Russia’s deportation and forced transfer of Ukrainian children, as Brussels prepares to host a high-level meeting with Ukraine and Canada on efforts to return them.
European Union foreign ministers are expected to adopt new sanctions next week linked to Russia’s deportation and forced transfer of Ukrainian children, placing the issue back at the centre of Brussels’ response to the war in Ukraine.
The measures are due to be considered on Monday, 11 May, when foreign ministers meet in Brussels for the Foreign Affairs Council. The Council agenda includes a discussion on Russia’s war against Ukraine, following an informal exchange of views with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha.
The sanctions are expected to target individuals connected to the transfer of Ukrainian children to Russia and Belarus. The names of those to be listed have not yet been made public. EU officials have previously used asset freezes and travel bans against Russian and Belarusian officials, military figures, administrators and other individuals linked to the war.
The Council meeting will take place alongside a high-level gathering of the International Coalition for the Return of Ukrainian Children, co-hosted by the European Union, Ukraine and Canada. The meeting is intended to strengthen international co-ordination on identifying, tracing and returning Ukrainian children who have been deported or forcibly transferred since Russia’s full-scale invasion.
The European Commission has said that more than 20,000 Ukrainian children have been forcibly taken from their families and homes. Its published objectives include further sanctions, child-friendly justice, compensation, return and reintegration, and wider international mobilisation through the Bring Kids Back UA initiative.
The deportation of children has been one of the most serious legal and humanitarian files arising from Russia’s war. Ukraine says close to 20,000 children have been illegally sent to Russia and Belarus. In many cases, Ukrainian authorities say children have been placed under Russian administrative control, had identity documents changed, or been subjected to processes intended to separate them from their Ukrainian identity.
Russia has denied wrongdoing and has described the transfers as evacuations from areas affected by fighting. That position has been rejected by Ukraine and by international bodies examining the cases.
In March 2023, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia’s presidential commissioner for children’s rights, over the alleged unlawful deportation and transfer of Ukrainian children from occupied areas of Ukraine to Russia. The warrants remain one of the most prominent legal actions linked to the war.
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The EU has already imposed sanctions against people accused of involvement in the deportation and forced transfer of Ukrainian children. The expected new listings would expand that approach and underline that the issue is being treated not only as a humanitarian matter, but also as part of the EU’s sanctions architecture against Russia.
The timing is also significant. Monday’s Council meeting will bring together foreign ministers at a moment when EU policy on Ukraine is increasingly focused on long-term pressure: military support, sanctions enforcement, use of frozen Russian assets, accession policy and the search for mechanisms to hold Russia accountable for war-related crimes.
The Council’s published agenda states that ministers will discuss the latest developments in Russia’s war against Ukraine. It also refers directly to EU support for Ukraine and to the return of Ukrainian children, linking the humanitarian file to the wider political and security discussion in Brussels.
For Ukraine, the return of deported children remains a central demand in any future settlement. Kyiv has repeatedly argued that the issue cannot be separated from questions of accountability and that the children’s return must be treated as an immediate obligation rather than a post-war matter.
For the EU, the expected sanctions offer a way to maintain pressure on individuals and networks involved in the transfers, even where direct recovery of children remains difficult. Sanctions cannot themselves return children, but they can restrict travel, freeze assets, limit access to European financial systems, and signal that the file will remain active in EU foreign policy.
The Brussels meeting with Ukraine and Canada will also test how far international co-ordination has advanced since earlier efforts to document cases and secure individual returns. Practical work has involved family tracing, legal documentation, diplomatic engagement, transit arrangements, psychological support and reintegration once children are returned to Ukraine.
The expected decision on Monday therefore has two dimensions. It is a further sanctions step within the EU’s response to Russia’s war, and it is a political message that the forced transfer of children remains a live issue on the European agenda.
