Canada imposes new sanctions against Russia over treatment of displaced Ukrainian children

Added: 2026-05-11

[00:00:00]Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky thanking Canada, the United Kingdom, and the European Union for the new sanctions today saying they have to continue working together to bring all of those Ukrainian children home and ensure that everyone behind those crimes is held accountable. Roman Waschuk is my guest.

[00:00:16]He's a former Canadian Ambassador to Ukraine. Thanks for taking the time for us as always. Appreciate you joining me.

[00:00:21]Your thoughts on these additional sanctions, what they may mean.

[00:00:26]Uh well, it it it's a next step. Canada is one of the leaders on the Ukrainian children's file.

[00:00:31]What we're seeing here is essentially a kind of weaponization of Russia's children's aid system.

[00:00:40]Uh so, if you look through the list, you'd be kind of surprised because these are not the people you would normally see sanctioned.

[00:00:47]But, what's happened is because Russia has created the war, it now says it has a a sort of obligation to rescue children from the war zone, bring them to Russia if they've been separated from parents, uh put them into new families, and essentially sometimes change their name, certainly change their identity.

[00:01:09]Uh those who were watching coverage of Russia's May 9th uh commemorations would have seen kids in schools, even in kindergartens, marching around as uh little soldiers.

[00:01:23]And so, that's what's happening to Ukrainian children in what Russia claims is their care. We know, and I'm sure you're aware of this, Mr. Ambassador, that Canada has imposed uh sanctions on more than 3,000 different Russians in the last, let's say, 12 years, give or take, uh as a result of what it has done in Ukraine. And the Europeans, the British, and others, Americans as well.

[00:01:47]Do these sanctions make any difference, though? Do you think this will actually help?

[00:01:54]You know, they cumulatively do. I mean, each individual decision probably doesn't.

[00:02:00]It's, you know, unlikely that a Russian child care regional official will decide to come to Saskatchewan on holiday.

[00:02:12]But, the message is being delivered. The whole system is essentially being excised from the global uh sort of children's rights world. And that, I think, is a pretty powerful message.

[00:02:30]>> Yeah, we should point out that more than 2,000 children have been returned back to Ukraine as a result of some of this pressure and and the different things that have been brought to bear against Russia. On the other hand, there are still thousands more that are still being held in Russia. And we can only assume most of them against their will, depending on how old they were, of course, when they were taken. What more could be done?

[00:02:55]You know, I think uh more direct support to NGOs that are working on this file and uh because there there are different ways of getting kids back. Uh there are some bilateral behind-the-scenes negotiations, which are a bit similar to prisoner-of-war exchanges that result in some of the kids being brought back officially or semi-officially. There are also networks that help, especially adolescents, the ones who don't want to stay, who have already a firm identity of their own, help them get out. Sometimes through, you know, third countries like Latvia, ones with which borders are still open.

[00:03:39]Uh so, I think more could be done on the less official side of things.

[00:03:43]Mr. Waschuk, thanks so much for taking time for CTV. It's great to have you part of our coverage on this one today.

[00:03:49]You're very welcome, Todd. Roman Waschuk was Canada's ambassador to Ukraine.