Sweden, which holds the presidency of the European Union, said on Thursday it was ready to add the Russian paramilitary group Wagner, which is accused of human rights abuses in Ukraine and Africa, to the European Union’s (EU) list of terrorist organizations.

Soldiers of Wagner’s PMKPhoto: Viktor Antonyuk / Sputnik / Profimedia

“Sweden is ready to act to reach a consensus in the EU to add the Wagner group to the EU’s list of terrorist organizations as soon as the legal conditions are met,” Stockholm’s foreign minister, Tobias Billström, told the Swedish newspaper. Dagens Nyheter (DN), quoted by Agerpres.

On Tuesday, France’s National Assembly unanimously passed a resolution calling on the government in Paris to “mobilize diplomatically” to include the paramilitary group on the list in order to more effectively apply sanctions against Wagner’s members and supporters, including financially.

“The Wagner group has committed brutal abuses, especially in Sudan, Mali, Syria and Ukraine,” the Swedish foreign minister told DN in an interview.

“For a group to fall under EU sanctions against terrorist organizations, a judicial authority or an equivalent competent national authority, such as a court or prosecutor, must decide to open an investigation against the group or charge it with a terrorist crime,” he noted.

“This decision should be made by the judiciary,” said Tobias Billström.

In March, the Lithuanian parliament passed a resolution recognizing Wagner as a “terrorist organization”, thanking Kyiv.

Foreign ministers of 27 countries are meeting in Stockholm on Friday, writes AFP.

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