The United States Treasury Department is set to designate the Wagner Group, the Russian mercenary organization assisting Moscow in the war, as a "transnational criminal organization," imposing sanctions next week on the organization and its support network worldwide.
The decision was announced on Friday by the White House, and National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby said that the actions recognize the transcontinental threat that the group poses.
The Wagner Group
On top of the additional sanctions that will be implemented on the group, the U.S. has also released newly declassified photographs of Russian railcars traveling from Russia to North Korea that were taken back in November. This was in what the American government believes was the first delivery of infantry rockets and missiles that the mercenary organization utilized in Ukraine.
The official noted that while the U.S. does not believe that the equipment has changed the battlefield dynamics in Ukraine, it expects that such weapons systems deliveries from North Korea to Russia will continue, as per CNN.
Furthermore, Moscow has been continuously receiving equipment, such as drones, from Iran, as the former's military forces have continued to be reduced following battles in the war. Kirby noted that the arms transfers from the North directly violated the United Nations Sanctions Security Council resolution. He added that the US has already shared its intelligence with the council's DPRK sanctions committee of a panel of experts.
A senior western intelligence official also echoed these statements on Friday, saying that the West was concerned that North Korea could be planning to expand and deliver more military equipment or to sustain such deliveries.
The US government assesses that tensions between the Russian Defense Ministry and the Wagner group rise as Russian President Vladimir Putin continues to rely on the group to carry out his war efforts in Ukraine.
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A Transnational Threat
The Wagner group is believed to have thousands of mercenaries already deployed in Ukraine to assist Moscow. According to BBC, Kirby added that the group was committing human rights abuses and other atrocities in Ukraine and elsewhere.
The new criminal organization designation will allow American authorities to apply wider sanctions against it. The group is also known to operate in Syria, Libya, the Central African Republic, and several other hotspots worldwide. Kirby estimated that roughly 80% of the group's troops deployed to Ukraine were drawn from prisons.
The American official added that the Wagner group had transformed itself to become a rival to Russia's regular military forces. The US believes there are mounting tensions between Russian officials and Wagner's controversial founder, Yevgeny Prigozhin, a businessman and an ally of Putin.
The designation would also result in freezing any US assets of Wagner and prohibits Americans from providing funds, goods, or services to the group. Kirby said that the American government would continue to work relentlessly to identify, disrupt, expose, and target the parties helping the Wagner group, told Reuters.
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