The US Department of State and Treasury announced that they would impose various sanctions on “Force Wagner”, which sent about 5,000 mercenaries to fight in Ukraine. At the same time, the force was declared a “terrorist organization”. The Secretary of State said that the purpose of the sanctions is to “target a variety of Wagner’s key infrastructures – including an airline used by Wagner, a Wagner propaganda organization, and Wagner’s companies.”
The US Department of the Treasury announced the imposition of a series of sanctions on the infamous “Wagner Force”, a private organization whose people take an active and important part on the Russian side in the war against Ukraine, and which is headed by Russian President Putin’s close associate Yevgeny Prigozhin.
In a press release, the US Department of the Treasury stated that: “While Russia’s military was struggling on the battlefield, Putin turned to rely on the Wagner group to continue his war of choice. The Wagner group also intervened and destabilized countries in Africa, committed widespread human rights violations and extorted natural resources from their people “.
At the same time, the US State Department announced various sanctions that it will impose on the Wagner force, whose purpose is to “target a variety of Wagner’s key infrastructures – including an airline used by Wagner, a Wagner propaganda organization, and Wagner’s companies”, according to the US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken.
Along with various sanctions imposed on the Wagner force, the State Department together with the Ministry of Finance decided to impose sanctions on various individuals connected to the Kremlin and the Russian side in the ongoing war in Ukraine. “This action supports our goal of degrading Moscow’s ability to wage war against Ukraine, promote accountability for those responsible for Russia’s war of aggression and related abuses, and put additional pressure on Russia’s defense sector,” Blinken said in a statement.
Wagner Force is a private Russian military organization that receives from Russia certain projects on which it is required to focus. As part of the Russia-Ukraine war, there are about 5,000 “mercenaries” from Wagner’s force.
Recently there are many conflicts between President Putin according to Prigozhin, the chief responsible of the Wagner force. Prigozhin often accuses the Russian army of sloppy and incorrect conduct, and usually promotes and presents Wagner’s force as the alternative army. On the other hand, the Russian army sees the Wagner force as nothing more than cannon fodder and greatly underestimates its strength and quality.
