The United States has codenamed the Wagner mercenary group a a transnational criminal organization following their engagement in the war in Ukraine.
The Wagner mercenary group is described by the United States, as a private army recruited from Russian prisons controlled by Yevgeny Prigozhin.
According to the U.S. spokesperson on national security John Kirby on Friday disclosed that “Wagner is a criminal organization that is committing widespread atrocities and human rights abuses.”
“We will work relentlessly to identify, disrupt, expose and target those who are assisting Wagner,” he said.
The U.S. intelligence accused the Wagner of getting arms from a foreign countries in their ongoing onslaught in Ukraine.
Designating the group as Criminal Organization, under US executive order 13581, will prohibit any US citizens or individuals to provide any form of support, aid, and funds to the group.
Wagner is being put in a league of a transnational criminal organizations like Italian and Japanese mafia.
The Wagner group has about 50,000 fighters in Ukraine.