Russian mercenary group Wagner on EU sanctions list for "active participation in war"
The European Union on Thursday added the Russian paramilitary organisation Wagner to the list of persons and entities sanctioned for "active participation in the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine". The mercenary group, which is fighting in eastern Ukraine to try to seize the towns of Bahmut and Soledar, was already placed on another EU sanctions list in February for human rights violations and "destabilising" countries in Africa.
The European Council, which represents the 27 EU member states, explained that the new sanctions list "complements" the previous one, according to AFP, reported by Agerpres. The Wagner Group, the Council continued, was listed for "actions that undermine or threaten the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine". The fact that this paramilitary organisation is thus doubly sanctioned "underlines the international dimension and seriousness" of its activities and "its destabilising impact on the countries in which it operates", according to a Council statement. Acts of torture A Russian NGO and a defector from Wagner said mercenaries from the group were responsible for the beheading of a man who appeared to have been a Ukrainian prisoner of war.
Prigojin rejected the accusations, while Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelenski denounced a new horror by Russian "monsters". A video, lasting 1 minute 40 seconds with unbearable footage, has been circulating on social media since Tuesday. In it, a man in camouflage uniform, his face masked, slits the throat of another man in uniform who is writhing on the ground and shouting "it hurts". Within seconds, the screaming stops and a man can be heard from behind the camera urging the executioner to "cut off the head" of the victim.
The executioner completes his decapitation with the knife and shows the severed head to the camera. For its part, the Russian prosecutor's office announced on Thursday that it had begun examining the footage. Individuals - natural or legal - sanctioned by the European Union are subject to a freeze on their assets on the territory of its member states and a ban on travel there. In addition, no one in the EU is allowed to make funds available to them. The EU has adopted ten successive rounds of sanctions against Russia in the past year, following its military offensive in Ukraine.
