We Have More than Sufficient Evidence That Prigozhin Is a Military Criminal — U.S. Prosecutor General

U.S. Attorney-General Merrick Garland told a Senate hearing that the leader of the Wagner military group Yevgeny Prigozhin is a military criminal and there is enough evidence.

"Mr. Prigozhin, who runs this thing, is in my view a war criminal," "Voice of America" quotes Garland's speech at the Wednesday U.S. Senate hearings.

"Maybe that's inappropriate for me to say as a judge before getting all the evidence. But I think we have more than sufficient evidence at this point for me to feel that way," the U.S. Attorney General added.

According to Garland, Wagner group is responsible for attacks on Ukrainians in the Donbas and includes bringing in prisoners from Russian prison camps.

"It's just an unfathomable what they are doing," Garland said.

When asked by Senator Lindsey Graham, whether the U.S. should designate Wagner group as a foreign terrorist organisation, Garland replied that this issue was within the competence of the U.S. State Department.

"I believe they (Wagner) are an organisation that commits war crimes, an organisation that harms the United States," the Prosecutor General said.

Graham is one of the bill's initiators, which designated Wagner as a foreign terrorist organisation.

In January, the United States formally designated Wagner as a transnational criminal organisation.

In 2017, the United States added Wagner to a trade blacklist. At the end of last year, it imposed new restrictions on export of technologies for Wagner (Ukr) to further restrict its capabilities due to participation in the Russian invasion of Ukraine.