US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced Thursday that the United States is imposing sanctions on people and entities associated with the Russian paramilitary group Wagner to weaken Russia’s power to fight Ukraine.
“The United States is sanctioning individuals and entities associated with the Russian paramilitary group Wagner and its leader, Yevgeniy Prigozhin – including its key facilities and associated front companies, its combat operations in Ukraine, Russian arms manufacturers, and those in Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine,” Blinken said in a statement.
The official explained that this action is part of the United States’ goal “to weaken Moscow’s ability to wage a war against Ukraine, to hold those responsible for this aggression and related abuses, and to put more pressure on exercise on Russia’s defense sector”.
In November 2022, he continued, “the State Department has identified the Wagner Group (…) for activities in the defense sector and related material in the Russian economy,” and the same group of mercenaries had already been designated by the US . Foreign Assets Control Agency (OFAC, of the Ministry of Finance) as “responsible for or complicit in or involved, directly or indirectly, in actions or policies that threaten the peace, security, stability, sovereignty or territorial integrity of Ukraine”.
“Today OFAC classifies the Wagner Group as a major transnational criminal organization”Blinken stressed after White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby announced last Friday that the United States had identified the Russian paramilitary group as “a criminal organization engaged in generalized atrocities and human rights abuses” “. to its performance in Ukraine, where it has “about 50,000 open elements”.
In the statement just released, the head of US diplomacy specified that “the pattern of serious criminal conduct by the Wagner Group includes violent harassment of journalists, humanitarian workers and members of minorities and intimidation, obstruction and harassment of UN peacekeepers in the Central Republic Africa, as well as rape and murder in Mali”.
At the same time, Blinken added, “OFAC holds the Wagner Group (…) responsible for or complicit in or involvement in attacks against women, children or civilians through acts of violence, or kidnapping and enforced disappearance, or attacks on schools, hospitals, places of worship or places where civilians have taken refuge, or by conduct that constitutes a serious violation or violation of human rights or a violation of international humanitarian law, in the case of the Central African Republic”.
In addition, he continued, “the State Department has identified five entities and one individual as associated with the Wagner Group and Prigozhin,” explaining that the inclusion of these names in the North American “blacklist” is aimed at a variety of key Wagner Group infrastructure” – including an airline used by the mercenary group, a propaganda organization affiliated with the group, and its front companies.
“OFAC also lists people and entities in the Central African Republic, the People’s Republic of China, Luxembourg and the United Arab Emirates associated with the activities of the Wagner Group around the world”indicated.
The US “blacklist” also lists “three individuals charged, for their role in running the Russian Federal Prison Service, with facilitating the recruitment of Russian prisoners for the Wagner Group, (…) a deputy Prime Minister who is also the Minister of Industry and Trade and the Chairman of the Rostov Region Election Commission,” the statement read.
The list will now include another person and four entities associated with Russian oligarch Vladimir Potanin, who was sanctioned in December 2022, Blinken says; Serguei Adonev – a financier of Russian President Vladimir Putin, from whom two yachts and a plane will be seized – along with various entities and people associated with him; and the Aktsionernoye Obshchestvo Dalnevostochnyy TsentrSudostroyeniya i Sudoremonta (AO DTSSS) company and eight of its subsidiaries, “known for building and maintaining the Russian Armed Forces, including the Pacific Fleet”.
According to Blinken, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will impose visa restrictions on 531 members of the Russian armed forces “for actions that threaten or violate the sovereignty, territorial integrity or political independence of Ukraine”.
The military offensive launched by Russia in Ukraine on February 24, 2022 has so far led to the flight of more than 14 million people — 6.5 million internally displaced persons and nearly eight million to European countries — according to the latest data from the UN, which classifies this refugee crisis as the worst in Europe since World War II (1939-1945).
Currently, 17.7 million Ukrainians need humanitarian aid and 9.3 million need food aid and shelter.
The Russian invasion – justified by Putin with the need to “denazify” and demilitarize Ukraine for Russia’s security – was condemned by the international community at large, which responded by sending arms to Ukraine and imposing political and political sanctions. put to Russia.
The UN presented as confirmed since the start of the war, which today entered its 337th day, 7,068 civilian deaths and 11,415 wounded, underlining that these numbers are far below the real ones.
Source: DN
