Britain has sanctioned Russian Children's Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova and the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, as part of a new package of measures aimed at punishing Moscow over its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
Those sanctioned are subjected to an asset freeze preventing them from dealing with British banks or businesses, and a ban on flying to Britain.
The Foreign Office said on June 16 that it had sanctioned Lvova-Belova for the forced transfer and adoption of Ukrainian children, while Kirill was targeted for "his prominent support of Russian military aggression in Ukraine."
Lvova-Belova has been accused of enabling 2,000 vulnerable children to be violently taken from the Donbas region for adoption in Russia.
Four colonels from the 64th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade, a unit known to have killed, raped, and tortured civilians in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha, are included on the sanctions list.
"We are targeting the enablers and perpetrators of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin's war who have brought untold suffering to Ukraine, including the forced transfer and adoption of children," Britain's Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said in a statement.
The Russian Orthodox Church dismissed the sanctions against Kirill as "absurd."
"Attempts to intimidate the primate of the Russian church with something or to force him to renounce his views are senseless, absurd, and unpromising," church spokesman Vladimir Legoyda said on Telegram.
Britain's move against the 75-year-old cleric comes two weeks after the European Union dropped him from its own sanctions list after opposition from Hungary.