The United Kingdom to Announce Wagner Group as Terrorist Organization

London – The United Kingdom (UK) government said on Wednesday that it will announce Russia's Wagner mercenary group a terrorist organization. 

The government also said it would introduce an order in parliament that if approved would make it illegal to be a member of or support the group. The order would also allow the government to seize Wagner’s assets. 

By announcing Wagner as a terrorist organization, those who belong to or promote the group, organize or deliver speeches at their meetings, or display their logo in public, are in violation of criminal law.

British Home Secretary Suella Braverman considers Wagner to be a "ruthless and destructive" military tool of Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

"They are a terrorist group, that much is clear and this banning order makes clear where they stand under UK law," Braverman said.

Wagner mercenaries were deployed to Ukraine after Russia invaded the country in February 2022. 

In December 2022, the group played a prominent role in the fighting in Bakhmut City after recruiting inmates from Russian prisons to deploy to the frontline and become mainstays in the Russian offensive.

The UK's decision to declare Wagner a terrorist group came after members of the Foreign Relations Committee in the UK parliament in July urged for heavier sanctions against what they called a "network of Wagner Group entities".

The UK in 2020 imposed sanctions against Yevgeny Prigozhin, the boss of Wagner Group and Wagner Group as a whole, as well as individuals or businesses linked to the group in the Central African Republic, Mali and Sudan. 

Prigozhin died in a private plane crash en route from Moscow to St. Petersburg on August 23. Russia said it would investigate the cause of the crash, but has not yet announced it.