The United States has confirmed that the Wagner Group has purchased weapons from North Korea for use in Ukraine, where the Russian mercenary group supports the Russian Army, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby has said.
Kirby specified in a press conference that Wagner «has been forced to rely on pariah states to sustain its military campaign in Ukraine» and assured that Washington is planning new actions against the Russian group, although he did not give further details, as reported by Bloomberg.
Moreover, he has sentenced that «Russian officers are really subordinate to Wagner’s command». «It is quite evident to us that Wagner is emerging as a rival power center for the Russian Army and other Russian ministries,» he said.
Kirby has noted that Washington estimates that Wagner currently has about 50,000 people deployed inside Ukraine, 40,000 of whom could be convicts recruited from Russian prisons. In total, according to estimates, Wagner is spending $100 million a month to fund its operations in Ukraine, CNN has reported.
In fact, while Kirby announced that he was taking the issue to the United Nations, the US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, reiterated in a statement that last month, Pyongyang delivered infantry rockets and missiles to Moscow for Wagner.
«We assess that the amount of materiel delivered to Wagner will not change the battlefield dynamics in Ukraine, but we are concerned that North Korea plans to deliver more military equipment to Wagner,» she has sentenced.
In this way, he explained that this action, in addition to «sowing destruction in Ukraine, contributes «to instability on the Korean peninsula», since it provides Pyongyang with funds that it can use «to further develop its weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs».
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dimitro Kuleba this week urged his partners in the international community to «immediately» recognize Wagner as a terrorist organization for its role in various conflicts around the world.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
