The move came in response to the Foreign Affairs Committee's recent report titled "Guns for gold: the Wagner Network exposed."
The investigation by the Foreign Affairs Committee, initiated last year, focused on proxy PMCs, including the Wagner Group. The Committee's recommendations included improving intelligence and analysis of the Wagner Network's activities in various countries and implementing sanctions against Wagner-linked actors and civilian enablers.
The Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO) endorsed the idea of a taskforce on Wagner and committed additional resources to counter Wagner and Russian proxy PMCs. They also emphasized using international networks and strategic communications channels to expose Wagner's human rights violations and destabilizing influence.
In addition to their role in Ukraine, for which the U.K. declared the Wagner Group a terrorist organization, the report highlighted that Prigozhin's mercenaries are involved “in serious acts of violence and property damage while working in a variety of African countries, demonstrating Wagner’s broader involvement in terrorism.”
“Private Military Companies are a clear threat to global security and the rules-based international order. The proliferation of the Wagner Network across four continents should be a wake-up call for the U.K. Government: for too long we have underestimated and neglected this group, and the issue of PMCs more broadly,” Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Alicia Kearns MP, said.
The U.K.'s proscription of the Wagner Network in September marked a crucial step in holding collaborators accountable, she added.
Kearns acknowledged that part of the problem lies in the attraction of groups like Wagner to dictatorial and corrupt regimes, which use them to maintain power. They exploit regions struggling with poverty and conflict in exchange for gold and critical minerals, deploying brutality and criminality to achieve their desired outcomes.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian oligarch and close friend of President Putin, established the Wagner Group in 2014. Despite its unofficial status, the paramilitary force has maintained significant ties to the Kremlin.
However, tensions between Prigozhin, his mercenaries, and the Kremlin escalated in late June when they revolted against Putin in a violent mutiny. Prigozhin and other top Wagner commanders died in a plane crash on August 23, but the group continued its operations.
Notably, another PMC has been recruiting women to fight in Ukraine.
“Recent social media adverts have appealed for female recruits to join Borz Battalion, a part of Russian PMC Redut, to work as snipers and uncrewed aerial vehicle operators. Redut is likely directly sponsored by the Russian Main Directorate of Intelligence,” the Ministry stated on its X (former Twitter) profile.
