New Zealand's 36th Russia Sanctions Hit Child Abductors
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- New Zealand announced its 36th sanctions round against Russia on August 8, targeting 33 individuals and entities with a particular focus on cyber actors and those involved in the forced relocation, abduction and re-education of Ukrainian children.
- Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters declared that "children should never be used as instruments of war" and said New Zealand remains "deeply concerned" by coercive state-directed programmes targeting Ukrainian children.
- The US Senate passed a sweeping bill overnight authorizing tariffs on China, India and other top buyers of Russia's oil and gas — a move the New Zealand announcement explicitly followed.
- Since March 2022, New Zealand has sanctioned over 2,000 individuals, entities and vessels alongside a range of trade measures, according to the foreign affairs ministry release.
Why it matters: New Zealand's 36th package keeps Russia under coordinated Western pressure on two fronts — punishing the individuals running cyber and child-abduction operations while the US Senate simultaneously moves to choke Russia's oil revenue from China, India and other major buyers.
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