The US State Department sanctioned two entities and 11 people over their alleged involvement in the forced transfer and deportation of Ukrainian children.

Speaking at a Security Council meeting on Ukraine, US ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said Washington “will not stand by as Russia carries out these war crimes and crimes against humanity”.

The State Department’s sanctions and visa restrictions, which were announced on Ukraine’s Independence Day, take aim at Russian entities and people who have played a role in the transfer process.

Among those named are local children’s rights commissioners in several Russian oblasts, a special police battalion commander in the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, and a family foundation which the State Department said is used “to oversee the ‘re-education’ of Ukrainian children in camps outside of Grozny in the Chechen Republic”.

In her address to the UN, Ms Thomas-Greenfield called for international action: “We must support the return of all forcibly transferred and detained children with the same doggedness and the same determination. Because these children are the world’s children. And we must fight on their behalf as long as it takes, until all are free and until justice is delivered”.