(Washington) The White House on Thursday issued a serious warning against the rise of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner, as it describes it as a “rival” to Russia’s regular army in Ukraine, which is now receiving weapons from North Korea.
North Korea delivered the first batch to Wagner, who paid for the equipment. Last month, [elle] “I delivered shells and missiles to Russia for Wagner,” said John Kirby, a spokesman for the US Executive National Security Council.
He said in an interview with reporters that the United States believed that Pyongyang “is considering providing more equipment.”
This is a clear violation of UN Security Council resolutions. British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly commented that the fact that President Putin is asking North Korea for help shows that Russia is alone and desperate.
The White House spokesman also estimated that Wagner currently has 50,000 soldiers deployed in Ukraine – 10,000 mercenaries and 40,000 recruited from Russian prisons. And that the organization was spending $100 million a month on its operations in the country.
John Kirby indicated that Washington, which has already imposed sanctions on this organization of mercenaries present in several arenas of conflict in the world, will take additional measures “in the coming weeks.”
“butcher’s shop”
The paramilitary group is active in Syria, Libya, Sudan and the Central African Republic. He was accused of participating in abuses in several places.
“It is clear to us that Wagner is on its way to becoming a rival force to the regular Russian army and other Russian ministries,” the spokesman said, stressing that the influence of the group’s leader in the Kremlin, Yevgeny Prigozhin, was only “increasing.” .
PHOTO SERGEI ILNITSKY, associated press
Yevgeny Prigozhin
John Kirby elaborated, “For months, the Russian military relied on Wagner to lead the fighting in certain areas of Donbass (eastern Ukraine) and in some cases, Russian officers actually obeyed Wagner’s orders.”
He asserted that Wagner’s forces were “poorly equipped and trained” and had suffered “heavy losses” on the battlefield.
Thus the American spokesman estimated that Wagner had recently lost 1,000 men in the Ukraine.
Yevgeny Prigogine, who has “no concern for human life,” “sends Russian men to massacre at Bakhmut,” a frontline town where the fighting is going on, John Kirby declared.
He appears to be far more interested in his influence in the Kremlin than in the men he recruited to fight in Ukraine. All he cares about is looking good [du président russe Vladimir] he said again.
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