The United States on Thursday officially recognized Wagner’s military company as a transnational criminal organization, freezing its American assets as a result of its actions in helping the Russian military in the war in Ukraine, Reuters reported.

The U.S. Treasury Department said it designated Wagner’s group a “significant transnational criminal organization” as part of a crackdown on dozens of individuals and entities aimed at reducing Russia’s ability to sustain the war.

“PEC Wagner personnel engaged in an ongoing pattern of serious criminal activity, including mass executions, rape, child abduction, and physical violence in the Central African Republic (CAR) and Mali,” the Treasury said in a statement.

The Treasury Department also imposed additional sanctions on Wagner’s group under another executive order, accusing the group of being responsible for or complicit in attacks on women, children or civilians, including through forced displacement, attacks on hospitals and other activities related to the Central African Republic.

Designation of Wagner’s group as a transnational criminal organization under US Executive Order 13581 freezes all US assets of the paramilitary company and prohibits Americans from providing funds, goods or services to the group.

“With these and other actions, our message to any company considering supporting the Wagner group is this: Wagner is a criminal organization that commits mass atrocities and human rights abuses, and we will work tirelessly to identify , destruction, exposure and to target those who help Wagner,” said a representative of the US administration on condition of anonymity.

“We are seeing signs, including in intelligence, that tensions between the Wagner PMC and the Russian Ministry of Defense are growing,” John Kirby said last week. “Wagner becomes a rival of the Russian army and other Russian ministries.”

According to him, the United States estimates that there are currently about 50,000 Wagner employees working in Ukraine, including 10,000 contractors and 40,000 convicts recruited from Russian prisons.

Wagner allegedly took possession of a shipment of weapons from North Korea

The White House said last month that Wagner’s group had taken over arms shipments from North Korea to help bolster Russian forces in Ukraine, in a sign of the group’s expanding role in the conflict.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of North Korea called the report baseless and condemned the United States for supplying Ukraine with lethal weapons. Last month, Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin denied receiving weapons from North Korea and described the reports as “rumors and speculation.”

The U.S. government also released images from Nov. 18 that it said showed Russian railcars traveling between Russia and North Korea.

Photo: MANDEL NGAN / AFP / Profimedia

Officials installed by Moscow in Donetsk say Wagner’s mercenaries are advancing on Bakhmut, a town the Kremlin has been trying to capture during months of fierce fighting to give the Russian army a victory after a long series of defeats.

The commander of the “Wagner” PMK Yevgeny Prigozhin also called his paramilitary company a “complete” capture of Soledar on January 11.