The document was submitted to Congress on December 1.

The draft law "On prosecution of Russian mercenaries" was presented by Republican Roger Wicker and Democrat Ben Cardin.

The document contains a request to the US Secretary of State to recognize "PMC Wagner" and any groups affiliated with this private military company, as well as its successors, as a foreign terrorist organization.

Ben Cardin called the Russian PMC a "shadow army" and said that the US authorities should bring it to justice.

"Wagner's group is associated with countless atrocities in Ukraine, Syria and the entire African continent.

The US should immediately designate it as a foreign terrorist organization.

This will reduce the number of Russian armed forces and will help bring human rights violators to justice," says Cardin.

A similar initiative is planned to be submitted to the US House of Representatives.

The bill has already been drafted by Democrats Steven Cohen and Mark Vesey, along with Republicans Joe Wilson and Richard Hudson.

Earlier, the members of the European Parliament appealed to the leadership of the EP with a request to consider the issue of including "PMC Wagner" in the list of terrorist organizations.

Politico wrote about it.

The authors of the letter emphasized that, despite the inclusion of PMK leaders in the EU sanctions list at the beginning of this year, the European Union should take stricter measures in relation to this military campaign, namely, include it in the list of terrorist organizations.

"Wagner PMC" is not listed on the balance sheet of military departments and in the register of legal entities, but its fighters, according to numerous journalistic investigations, take part in the ground operations of the Russian Federation in Syria and in the war in Ukraine.

PMC is considered one of the most combat-capable units participating in battles on Ukrainian territories.

Its fighters are suspected of committing numerous war crimes.

In the summer of 2022, information appeared that "PMC Wagner" was recruiting and sending Russian prisoners to war.

The company's owner Yevhen Prigozhin, who visited more than ten colonies in different regions of the country, is personally engaged in recruitment.

At the same time, a businessman close to Putin admitted only at the end of September that he is the creator of Wagner PMC.

For sensitive topics,


write to us here.

SAFE

Russia's war against Ukraine

  • At 5:00 a.m. on February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the start of a military operation against Ukraine in the Donbass at the request of the "DPR" and "LPR" groups.

    On February 21, during a televised address to Russians, Putin called the so-called "DPR" and "LPR" independent states within the regions.

    On February 22, the Federation Council ratified this decision.

  • All days of the war, Ukrainian cities were bombarded with rockets, aircraft flew over them.

    Russian troops are attacking, including from the territory of Belarus, using airfields, bases and roads.

    Representatives of Lukashenka's regime justify the war, his opponents consider the territory of Belarus to be occupied, many call for resistance to the Russian invaders.

  • On February 27, the International Territorial Defense Legion was created in Ukraine, and foreign volunteers were invited to join it.

    Belarusians also entered there.

  • During the six months of war in Ukraine, 11 Belarusians are known to have died fighting on the Ukrainian side.

    These are Ilya Khrenov, Alyaksei Skoblia, Dmitri Apanasovich, Dmitri Rubashevskyi, Konstantin Dubaila, Pavel "Volat", Ivan Marchuk, Vasil Parfyankov, Vasil Grudovik, Vadim Shatrov and one of the fighters of Kalinovsky's regiment, whose name was not mentioned.

    In addition, it is known for sure about two prisoners from Kalinin - Ian Djurbeyka and Syarhei Dzhogtsev.

    There are no details about their fate.

  • It is also known about cases of death of natives of Belarus who fought in Ukraine on the side of Russia.

    During the six months of the war, there were nine such people.

  • On March 30, the UN approved the composition of an independent commission that will investigate Russian war crimes in Ukraine.

    It included people who worked in the analysis of the genocide in Rwanda and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

  • Contrary to Putin's statements about attacks only on military facilities, the Russians are bombing schools, kindergartens and residential areas of Ukrainian cities.

    The Russians are using banned weapons, including cluster bombs, against civilians.

  • On April 1, Lithuania became the first country in the European Union to completely abandon Russian gas.

    Latvia and Estonia followed her example.

    Germany has promised to completely stop using Russian oil by the end of 2022.

  • On April 2, after the liberation of the town of Bucha near Kyiv, photojournalists published dozens of photographs showing hundreds of dead people, victims of mass murders committed by Russian troops.

    Many are buried in spontaneous mass graves.

    The Russian occupation also brought great destruction to the people of Barodyan.

    It is also known about a number of rapes, including babies.

  • On May 9, the US President signed the Land Leasing Law.

    This law restores the program from the Second World War, which will speed up the delivery of weapons to Ukraine and increase the amount of such assistance.

  • In June, two volunteers from Great Britain and one from Morocco were sentenced to death in the so-called "DNR".

    The same punishment threatens some other prisoners.

  • On July 29, as a result of an attack on the colony in Alenivtsi, at least 53 Ukrainian prisoners who previously defended the Azovstal plant and surrendered after completing their military mission were killed.

    The Russians accused Ukraine of the attack, the Ukrainian side declared the deliberate killing of prisoners by the Russian side.

  • On August 22, the Minister of Defense of Ukraine Valery Zaluzhny announced the official number of dead Ukrainian soldiers.

    According to him, it is about 9,000 soldiers.

  • During the six months of the war, Russia was able to occupy about 20% of the Ukrainian territory.

    In March, the area of ​​occupied land reached 30%.

    However, at the end of the month, Russian troops retreated from the north of Ukraine, as well as partially from Kharkiv.

    At the end of August, Crimea, Luhansk and Kherson regions were completely occupied.

    And also 50% of the territory of the Donetsk region, about 70% of the Zaporizhia region, approximately 30% of the Kharkiv region.

  • Kherson remains the only regional center of Ukraine captured by Russia after February 24.

    The city was occupied by Russian troops in the first days of the war without actually fighting.

    Kyiv suspects part of the former leadership of Kherson and the region of treason.

    The former head of the SBU of the Kharkiv region was also detained on such suspicion.

  • In September, Ukrainian troops launched a large-scale counteroffensive, as a result of which Russian forces began to rapidly flee from their positions in the Kharkiv region.

    Only on the day of September 11, Ukrainians liberated more than 20 settlements in Slobazhanshchyna.

  • In September, Ukraine withdrew its mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo under the AAN to send an aviation unit to defend against Russian aggression.

  • On September 21, Putin announced the mobilization in Russia.

    After this statement, thousands of Russians went to the border crossings and began to leave for Georgia, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Mongolia, Finland and other countries.

    In Russia itself, opponents of the war set fire to several military offices.

    Even people without military experience began to be conscripted into the army, despite promises that only experienced people would go to war.

    The mobilization of men into the Russian army also takes place in the occupied territories of Ukraine.

  • On October 2, Putin submitted a bill to the Russian parliament, which is an attempt to annex parts of four regions of Ukraine.

    Two new republics - "LPR" and "DNR" - and two regions - Zaporizhia and Kherson will be part of Russia.

    But thanks to the counteroffensive of the Ukrainians, the borders drawn in Moscow are no longer fully controlled by the occupying forces.

  • In October, Ukrainian troops successfully continued their counteroffensive, at the beginning of October they liberated Liman and Yampal, and also came significantly closer to Svatov in the Luhansk region, and from there the way to Severodanetsk and Lysichansk opens.

  • On the morning of October 10, the Russians began intensive shelling of Ukrainian territory, including the center of Kyiv.

    Rockets also reached Lviv, depriving the city of electricity.

  • On October 10, Lukashenka held a meeting with the Security Council and announced the deployment of a joint grouping of troops with Putin.

  • On November 11, after successful battles in the south, Ukrainian troops entered Kherson.

    The Russians blew up several bridges in the region during their retreat.

  • On the evening of November 15, Russia fired 100 missiles across the territory of Ukraine, primarily at energy facilities, and in Poland, two missiles fell in the village of Przewodau, 6 km from the border with Ukraine, killing two people.

    The Polish authorities summoned the Russian ambassador for explanations.

    Then it turned out that it was probably the result of the work of the Ukrainian Air Defense Forces, which shot down a Russian missile.

  • In November, with the onset of cold weather, Russia intensified its missile attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure.

    As a result, many Ukrainian cities and part of Moldova were left without electricity and water.

    Ukraine called an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council.

  • Independent verification of information about military actions provided by officials of various parties is still impossible.