The General Prosecutor’s Office of Ukraine reported that the founder of the mercenary group Wagner Yevhen Prigozhin is accused of violating the territorial integrity of Ukraine and waging a war of aggression, Ukrinform and Meduza report.

According to the investigation, Prigozhin, with the support of the Russian authorities, had the authority to recruit, train and manage people for use in the war against Ukraine.

“Chief Wagner is directly responsible for thousands of war crimes. It openly admits its role in the war against Ukraine and, with the permission of the Kremlin, solves personnel problems by conscripting tens of thousands of prisoners. Previously convicted of robbery, today he is a hero of Russia. The criminal “elite” of the terrorist regime,” said the Prosecutor General of Ukraine Andriy Kostin.

The General Prosecutor’s Office also emphasizes that the members of the “Wagner” PMC will not escape criminal responsibility, including those who fled abroad.

“The prosecutor’s office has already interrogated two such fighters who are in the EU. Another member of Wagner’s group, who is in Norway, is also being investigated for war crimes. In the near future, a request for an investigation will be sent to Norwegian colleagues,” Kostin added.

“It’s time to stop the bloody tours of Russians hiding behind the name of a famous composer. The hammer of justice is always stronger than the sledgehammer of anarchy,” the Prosecutor General noted.

Barto is seen as a symbol of revenge after a defector from Wagner was killed with the hammer last year.

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Prigozhin admitted that he was behind Wagner’s group

“Putin’s chef” first admitted in September 2022 that he founded a group of Wagner mercenaries to fight in Ukraine and acknowledged its presence, in particular, in Africa, the Middle East and Latin America.

Prigozhin said that he created a paramilitary formation to send qualified fighters to Donbas in 2014.

In a grim video earlier this year, Prigozhin, a longtime ally of Putin, was caught visiting a basement near Ukraine’s eastern front filled with the corpses of his soldiers, many of them prisoners who had been killed during fierce fighting for the town of Bakhmut. , which is a key goal of Russia.

In Prigozhin’s improvised morgue, corpses are shown on stretchers and in body bags. In the corner of one of the rooms, a pile of body bags can be seen piled up to the shoulders, and Prigozhin can be heard saying: “They’re out of contract, they’re going home next week. Preparing for shipment. On New Year’s Eve, we all work. The soldiers of Wagner who died at the front rest here. Now they are placed in zinc coffins and will return home.”

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