United States: The Wagner Group, a private Russian army fighting in Ukraine, is under increasing pressure after the United States on Friday designated it a "traditional criminal organisation".
According to John Kirby, White House national security spokesman Yevgeny Prigozhin, a businessman close to President Vladimir Putin, controls Wagner, which has about 50,000 fighters in Ukraine, 80% of whom are recruited from prisons.
Kirby displays images from US intelligence showing North Korea supplying Wagner with weapons for his operations in Ukraine and that the private army has become a rival to the official Russian military.
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According to him, photographs taken between November 18 and 19 show Russian rail cars entering North Korea, being loaded with infantry rockets and missiles, and then leaving for Russia.
He claimed that Wagner had been formally designated by the US Treasury as an international criminal organization, aligning it with Italian mafia organizations as well as Japanese and Russian organized crime.
The designation will enable the group's wider global network, with mercenary operations as well as companies in Africa and elsewhere, to be subject to wider sanctions.
Kirby referred to Wagner as "a criminal organization that is perpetrating widespread atrocities and human rights violations." Wagner's supporters would be identified, disrupted, made public and targeted, he vowed.
Kirby said that the United States had informed the North Korea Sanctions Committee of the United Nations Security Council about its intelligence regarding the purchase of Wagner in North Korea.
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According to Kirby, the arms transfer from North Korea is a clear violation of UN Security Council resolutions. According to Kirby, there is evidence that Prigozhin's belief in the relative success of the Wagner fighters in Ukraine has fueled tensions within the Kremlin.
According to Kirby, the Russian military and other Russian ministries are losing ground to Wagner. "Prigozhin is attempting to advance his own interests in Ukraine, and Wagner bases many of his military choices primarily on the favorable publicity they will bring to Prigozhin."
Russian advances over several months towards the city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, including last week's takeover of nearby Soledar, have been attributed to Prigozhin.
In a press release on Thursday, Prigozhin said that Russia "has a lot to learn" from the Ukrainian military. But he insisted, using the Russian name of Bakhmut, that "the settlement of Artemovsk would be captured."
Since its inception in 2014, Wagner has participated in wars in the Middle East, Latin America and Africa. According to Prigozhin, Wagner fighters are strict and disciplined, but are severely punished if they try to flee the field.
However, his disputes with other Kremlin officials may have hurt him. The US Institute for the Study of War claims that Putin is increasingly siding with Prigozhin's rivals in high-level power circles.
Wagner's achievements in the Bakhmut area were not specifically credited by Putin, it was reported. The organization claimed on Thursday that Putin may have been trying to undermine Prigozhin's prominence in favor of the newly emerging professional Russian military and Russian government officials.
Prigozhin, 61, has long been targeted by the US because he is known as "Putin's chef" and organized events for the Russian strongman in the 1990s when they were both living in St Petersburg were.
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He was indicted by the US Department of Justice in February 2018 for widespread interference in the 2016 US presidential election on behalf of Concord Management and Consulting and the Internet Research Agency, two companies he owns.
Additionally, the US and Europe have imposed sanctions on him and his businesses for a wide range of actions.