Labor Party is calling on ministers to ban as a terrorist organization the group of Russian mercenaries involved in Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Shadow Secretary of State David Lammy and Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper have jointly called on the government to designate the Wagner Group as a terrorist group because of their “appalling atrocities”.
Labor said the move would make it a criminal offense to belong to a private military company, to attend its meetings, to promote support or to wear its logo in public. The Wagner Group, led by warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin, engages in bloody battles alongside the Russian President’s forces in eastern Ukraine. mercenaries consisting of contractors and recruited convicts fought to capture the mining town of Soledar and are now waging brutal battles for the town of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region.
Labor wants ministers to follow suit after Washington last month labeled Wagner a “major international criminal organization”.
In a joint statement, Mr Lammy and Ms Cooper said: “The Wagner group is responsible for appalling atrocities in Ukraine and around the world. “No one in Britain should be allowed to belong to, support or promote the Wagner group.”
The push to ban Wagner came after a government agency allegedly helped its multimillionaire owner, Mr Prigozhin, bypass British sanctions and take a British journalist to court.
The Treasury Department is currently investigating how the department allegedly issued licenses to allow lawyers to help Prigozhin file a lawsuit against journalist Bellingcat in the UK in 2021 while the Russian oligarch was under sanctions.
Last month, the Labor Party pushed for the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to be banned as a terrorist group following the execution of Alireza Akbari, a British-Iranian national.
(With inputs from agencies)
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