Wagner Group

The BBC news website reports that the US will designate Russia's Wagner group, which is believed to have thousands of mercenaries in Ukraine, a "transnational criminal organisation".

It will also impose fresh sanctions on the group and its support network next week, the White House said.

"[It is] committing atrocities and human rights abuses in Ukraine and elsewhere," national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Friday.

He added that there were now some 50,000 Wagner mercenaries in Ukraine.

As Andrey Medvedev dashed towards the remote Russia-Norway border, he could hear the sound of attack dogs snarling behind him.

Their arrival meant the men hunting him were closing in. But the border - and the Western world - were in reach.

Two months earlier, the 26-year-old had deserted from the Russian mercenaries, the Wagner Group. He was about to become the first of their troops to defect to the West.

Founded in 2014, the Wagner Group is run by the businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin. It is believed to make up about 10% of Russia's forces in Ukraine, and has conducted operations in Syria, Libya and Mali.

The group, and its often inhumane methods, are now internationally known. But information about how it operates - and how it is funded - has remained behind a veil of secrecy. Medvedev's escape could allow Western intelligence officers to tear that veil away.

As Andrey Medvedev dashed towards the remote Russia-Norway border, he could hear the sound of attack dogs snarling behind him.

Their arrival meant the men hunting him were closing in. But the border - and the Western world - were in reach.

Two months earlier, the 26-year-old had deserted from the Russian mercenaries, the Wagner Group. He was about to become the first of their troops to defect to the West.

Founded in 2014, the Wagner Group is run by the businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin. It is believed to make up about 10% of Russia's forces in Ukraine, and has conducted operations in Syria, Libya and Mali.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64303652

varian I’ve read about this group, they are animals.
Any UK assets should be seized immediately.

A young Russian man who fled over the border to Northern Norway late last week has officially filed for asylum and is now living in what’s been described as “a secret location,” likely in the Oslo area. His offer to testify against Russia’s mercenary group called Wagner has raised concerns about his security, also after Wagner claimed the defector is himself suspected of abusing prisoners of war.

www.newsinenglish.no/2023/01/16/russian-wagner-defector-in-secret-location/

Putin’s mercenary Wagner Group who terrorised Ukrainians could face seizure of UK-linked assets

A UK law firm is bringing an action against the mercenary group, which faces allegations of terrorism, political assassinations and using rape as a weapon of war

inews.co.uk/news/putins-mercenary-wagner-group-who-terrorised-ukrainians-could-face-seizure-of-uk-linked-assets-1946455

This week the BBC quoted British officials as saying that the number of Wagner fighters in Ukraine had increased from about 1,000 in February to 20,000 as a sign of Russia's growing reliance on the mercenary group.

As Russia's conventional military has struggled against a more determined, better-motivated Ukrainian army, Russia has increasingly relied on the dark arts of the Wagner Group – a group used by the Putin regime to be able to commit atrocities or war crimes with Moscow able to claim they were not authorised Russian soldiers.

www.abc.net.au/news/2022-12-26/ukraine-russia-wagner-group-putin/101807842