US designates Russian mercenary Wagner Group as ‘transnational criminal organization’
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Biden administration designates Russian mercenary Wagner Group a ‘transnational criminal organization’ and releases satellite images of trains firing rockets from North Korea
- White House spokesman John Kirby said Friday that more sanctions would follow.
- US says Wagner has taken an increasingly important role in Russia’s war in Ukraine
- Kirby posted images showing a Russian train going to and from North Korea
- He said it was evidence that North Korea was supplying Wagner with rockets.
The White House announced Friday that the United States was designating Russia’s Wagner Group a “transnational criminal organization,” paving the way for new sanctions against mercenaries accused of war crimes in Ukraine.
“These actions recognize the transcontinental threat Wagner poses, including through his continuing pattern of serious criminal activity,” National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby told reporters.
And more will come.
The official designation will come from the Treasury, he said, with more sanctions to follow next week.
The White House released satellite photos that it said showed the delivery of rockets to Russia’s Wagner Group from North Korea.
National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby announced the designation at the White House on Friday, pledging more sanctions to follow.
The designation freezes any of Wagner’s US assets and prohibits US citizens from providing funds or services.
The announcement was accompanied by satellite images showing how on November 18, five Russian rail cars traveled from Russia to North Korea.
“And the next day, November 19, North Korea loaded those cars with shipping containers and the train returned to Russia,” Kirby said.
This was believed to be the first delivery of North Korean rockets to Wagner, he said.
Western officials have repeatedly said that Russia increasingly turned to Wagner for manpower and weapons as its invasion faltered.
The company was founded in 2014 and is run by Yevgeny Prigozhin, nicknamed ‘Putin’s chef’.
The Biden administration estimates that Wagner has sent 50,000 people to Ukraine, including 40,000 convicts.
Wagner Group mercenaries fight in Ukraine. The White House said it has 50,000 employees there, 40,000 of whom were recruited from prisons.
But that has led to growing tension between Wagner and the Russian Defense Ministry, which has become anxious about his reliance on prisoners and the way he has claimed battlefield victories.
“Wagner is becoming a rival power center for the Russian military and other Russian ministries,” Kirby said, and the United States has intelligence suggesting the Russian Defense Ministry “has reservations” about heavy recruitment of Wagner from prisons. russian.
‘Wagner is becoming a rival power center for the Russian military and other Russian ministries, Prigozhin and his fighters have publicly criticized Russian generals and defense officers for their performance on the battlefield.
“Prigozhin is trying to promote his own interest in the Ukraine and Wagner is making military decisions based largely on what they will generate for promotion… In terms of positive publicity.”
Earlier this month, Progozhin, who earned his nickname because Putin brought visiting dignitaries to his restaurants, posed for photos on a key battlefield.
He stood with his fighters at a salt pit in Soledar as he claimed his mercenaries had seized control of the eastern Ukrainian city, which has been engulfed in brutal fighting.
His claim provoked a quick response from the Russian army who insisted that the fight for the city continue.
It all added to questions about whether the Russian president had lost control of warlord Wagner and his men, amid suggestions that Kremlin officials are growing dissatisfied with Putin’s leadership.
The head of Wagner’s feared mercenary group has gloated in Ukraine by posing at a captured salt mine at the center of a key battlefield in the country (pictured)