Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian oligarch and an in depth ally of Vladimir Putin, admitted on Monday that he was behind the Wagner paramilitary group.
Human rights activists have accused the group -- a non-public community of mercenaries -- of committing struggle crimes in Ukraine, Syria and Libya.
Putin has all the time denied any hyperlink between the Kremlin and Wagner. However Prigozhin's admission lastly attracts a direct hyperlink between Wagner and the Russian authorities.
In a put up on the social media profile of the Harmony group, a catering firm which is half-owned by Prigozhin, the Russian oligarch stated he based the Wagner group to ship competent fighters to the Donbas area in jap Ukraine in 2014, the identical yr that Russia annexed Crimea.
Prigozhin, who's often called "Putin's chef" for internet hosting dinners attended by Putin and different Kremlin officers, referred to as the Wagner mercenaries "patriots".
"And now a confession [...] these guys, heroes, defended the Syrian folks, different folks of Arab international locations, the poor Africans and Latin Individuals, they turned a pillar of our homeland", he wrote, admitting that the group was concerned within the chilling operations in Syria, Mali, Libya and others.
To those international locations and extra, the EU discovered that the Wagner group recruited, skilled and despatched mercenaries "to gas violence, loot pure assets and intimidate civilians in violation of worldwide regulation, together with worldwide human rights regulation".
Although Prigozhin's assertion testifies to the presence of the Wagner group in Ukraine in 2014, it doesn't essentially affirm their presence within the nation now.
However in late March, the UK defence ministry declared in an intelligence replace that some 1,000 Wagner mercenaries, together with senior leaders of the organisation, had been deployed in jap Ukraine to struggle in help of Russian troops.
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