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After a report indicated the Russian-backed Wagner Group deployed more than 400 mercenaries to Kyiv with the mission of assassinating Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the private military company is receiving renewed attention from its past atrocities carried out at the behest of the Kremlin.
A senior U.S. defense official told reporters Monday that there are reconnaissance forces in Kyiv but could not confirm those forces were ordered to assassinate Zelenskyy.
The Times of London reported about the alleged mission to decapitate Zelenskyy and his government, and Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko issued a 36-hour nightly curfew over the weekend, warning that any residents who go outside could be mistaken for enemy sabotage and reconnaissance groups.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin already blatantly invaded the sovereign nation of Ukraine five days ago through an overt military operation, but former U.S. intelligence officials told Fox News Digital that using the Wagner Group, a private military company, allows him to escape attribution if Zelenskyy is killed.
Ukrainian police gesture during an airstrike alarm outside the railway station in Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, Feb. 28, 2022. Explosions and gunfire that have disrupted life since the invasion began last week appeared to subside around Kyiv overnight, as Ukrainian and Russian delegations met Monday on Belarus border.
( (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda))
“We’ve seen the Wagner Group active in the Middle East, certainly in Africa and even in Venezuela. They have caused no end of problems for U.S. policymakers, and there have been efforts to sanction some of their leaders,” Dr. James Anderson, former Acting Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, told Fox News Digital Monday. “Why they’re using them in Ukraine now is an interesting question because of the fact that Russia has already committed to an overt military effort. It could well be the case that these reports are true, they will be spearheading attempts to assassinate Zelenskyy and cabinet members.”
Since its inception in 2014, the Wagner Group has been considered a proxy group of the Russian state abroad, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
It was founded by Dmitry Utkiny, a veteran of both Chechen wars and a former member of the Main Intelligence Directorate, or the Russian intelligence agency abbreviated as GRU. He and other Wagner Group operatives participated in the Russian annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.
“I would also note that they have been active in the breakaway republics in Ukraine for a number of years,” Anderson told Fox News Digital. “I think it’s wise that the mayor of Kyiv, the territorial defense forces are instituting these curfews at night because they’re reducing the possibility that the un-uniformed Wagner personnel can blend in with the local populous.”
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A different former U.S. intelligence official speculated to Fox News Digital that Wagner operatives have more likely been in Kyiv for months – longer than the five weeks reported by the Times – because Putin would have wanted them there to gather intelligence ahead of his planned military invasion of Ukraine.
In a move supported by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the European Union in December moved to sanction the Russia-backed Wagner Group and its associates for serious human rights abuses, including torture and extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions and killings, and destabilizing activities in countries including Libya, Syria, the Central African Republic and Ukraine’s Donbas region.
Ukrainian police rush a traveler to the railway station terminal during an airstrike alarm in Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, Feb. 28, 2022.
((AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda))
Should Wagner operatives be indicted in war crimes as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine unfolds, Anderson said the International Criminal Courts could become involved to attempt to hold Russia accountable.
“I think the international legal community is probably working on a variety of briefs already in respect to Putin’s naked aggression in Ukraine and could imagine that they could be following the Wagner Group and reports of war crimes very closely,” he said. “This will become a part of the story moving forward.”
CSIS documented that in December Wagner operatives also began deploying to Mali as French forces began backing off on their military efforts against Salafi-jihadist groups in the region.
The Wagner Group has signaled other ties to Russia’s Ministry of Defense, as operatives have also regularly traveled on Russian military transport aircraft when deploying to Venezuela to assist President Nicolas Madura, in Libya and to and from Syria, according to the CSIS.
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Russian businessman and Putin’s close ally, Yevgeniy Prigozhin, has been accused of financially backing the Wagner Group. Separately, the same Russian oligarch is also wanted by the FBI for allegedly attempting to interfere with U.S. elections from early 2014 to at least 2018 through the St. Petersburg-based Internet Research Agency, dubbed the “troll factory.”
