The United Kingdom announced today sanctions against 35 individuals and entities involved in two of Russia’s most cynical war tactics: trafficking vulnerable migrants to the front lines and supplying components for drone attacks on Ukraine.
Migrants from Egypt, Iraq, Nigeria, Syria and Yemen were lured with promises of a better life — only to be sent to the battlefield with minimal training or forced to work in weapons factories.
Among those sanctioned: Pavel Nikitin, developer of Russia’s mass-produced VT-40 attack drone, and Polina Azarnykh, a Russian state-backed operative orchestrating the trafficking networks across multiple continents.
UK Sanctions Minister Stephen Doughty called it “barbaric,” vowing to keep “feeding Putin’s drone factories with illicit components” firmly in the crosshairs.
Russia launched over 200 drones per day into Ukraine in March 2026 – a record it is on pace to break again in April.