LONDON, May 5 (Reuters) – Britain on Tuesday unveiled sanctions against 35 people and entities it said were involved in recruiting vulnerable migrants to fight for Russia against Ukraine and produce drones for use in the conflict.
The Foreign Office announced 17 designations under its global irregular migration sanctions regime, relating to what it said were trafficking networks facilitating the travel of people to be sent “to the front line as cannon fodder.”
The sanctions relate to the trafficking of people from countries including Iraq, Somalia, Syria and Yemen to fight in Ukraine, but also to travel to Poland and Finland for the purpose of causing destabilisation, the Foreign Office said.
Britain also added 18 designations under its Russia sanctions regime, several relating to the Alabuga Start programme, which the Foreign Office described as “a Russian recruitment scheme that hires individuals from outside Russia, usually from economically insecure backgrounds.”
Those recruited, who are largely from Cameroon, are put to work at a plant located 500 miles (800 km) east of Moscow in the Republic of Tatarstan to produce drones, the ministry said.
Sanctions minister Stephen Doughty said in a statement: “The practice of exploiting vulnerable people to prop up Russia’s failing and illegal war in Ukraine is barbaric.”
He added that the sanctions would “disrupt the operations of those trafficking migrants as cannon fodder and feeding (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s drone factories with illicit components”.
Britain on Sunday said it was ready to enter talks to join the European Union’s 90 billion euro ($105 billion) loan to Ukraine, a further sign of deepening European defence ties.
($1 = 0.7385 pounds)
($1 = 0.8560 euros)
(Reporting by Sam Tobin; Editing by Sarah Young and Thomas Derpinghaus)
