The privately hold Russian military company, the Wagner Group, delivered an arms shipment from North Korea to boost Russian forces in Ukraine, a signal of the group’s increasing role in the conflict, a senior United States administration official said on Thursday.
“We can confirm that North Korea has completed an initial arms delivery to Wagner, which paid for the equipment. Last month, North Korea delivered infantry rockets and missiles into Russia for use by Wagner,” the official said, while speaking to the British news agency Reuters.
The US assessment, based on an intelligence, says that the amount of substances delivered by North Korea will not modify war dynamics in Ukraine, “but we are concerned that North Korea is planning to deliver more military equipment to Wagner,” the official said.
US officials think North Korea’s weapons delivery is against United Nations Security Council resolutions and they can raise this with the Council. North Korea has designed ballistic missiles and shorter-range weapons, which can strike close to any part of the earth, says weapons experts.
The official claim Russian President Vladimir Putin is in continuous contact with the Wagner Group, owned by his ally Yevgeny Prigozhin, for support in Ukraine to pull down the Ukraine government, as the Russian forces have failed in doing so.
In their attempts to weaken the Wagner Group, US President Joe Biden has put on restrictions to stop supply of technology to them.
US will bring in more sanctions in the upcoming days against the Russian paramilitary organization and its support group in countries around the world, the official said.
The official said Russian businessman Prigozhin is funiding Wagner’s operations in Ukraine with over than $100 million per month, but is faced with roadblocks in recruiting Russians to fight there.
According to the assessment of the United States, Wagner has deployed a force of 50,000 personnel in Ukraine, including 10,000 contractors and 40,000 convicts hired from Russian prisons, the official said.
The Wagner Group, which contains veterans of the Russian armed forces, has fought in Libya, Syria, the Central African Republic and Mali, among many countries.
US intelligence shows that Wagner has essayed a big role in the war for the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut and has seen heavy casualties on their side there with about 1,000 Wagner fighters killed in past few weeks, most of them convicts, the official said.
Russia is witnessing a growing influence of Prigozhin, and his group’s “independence from the Russian Defense Ministry has increased during the war in Ukraine,” the official said, without any evidence. “For months, the Russian military has been relying on Wagner to lead combat operations in parts of the Donbas – and in certain instances, Russian military officials are actually subordinate to Wagner’s command,” he further added.
In addition, Prigozhin has condemned Russian generals and defense personnel for their performance in Ukraine.
“It is apparent that Wagner is emerging as a rival power center to the Russian military and other Russian ministries,” the official said.
