BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — A senior US envoy on Thursday expressed grave concern over the activities of Russian private military company Wagner Group and its alleged attempts to recruit soldiers in Serbia and elsewhere in the world.
US State Department adviser Derek Chollet said he raised these concerns during talks with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic in Belgrade.
“We have seen that the Wagner group is trying to recruit soldiers from Serbia and elsewhere and this is something we cannot stand,” he told reporters after the meeting.
“I don’t know if there are concerns (in Serbia), we have spoken about our concerns and look forward to working with the government here in Belgrade and elsewhere where Wagner is active to end their activities,” he added added .
The Wagner group, owned by Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin, was reportedly active in dozens of mostly African states, working with governments on pro-Russian propaganda and other military and political projects.
The group boasted of its presence in Serbia, the only European state besides Belarus that has not joined international sanctions against Russia over its war in Ukraine. The group reportedly announced the opening of its office in Belgrade, which was later denied.
Moscow-based propaganda portal RT, which recently launched its Serbian-language online news site in Serbia, has published Wagner’s recruitment advert seeking fighters in Ukraine, saying the group offers “more than attractive” incentives.
Chollet said the Wagner Group was “at work in a horrible way all over the world, whether it’s in Libya, the Central African Republic, or right now Ukraine.”
The group, which reportedly includes a large contingent of convicts recruited from Russian prisons, has spearheaded attacks in eastern Ukraine, including bitter fighting in Soledar and Bakhmut.
Prigozhin and his group have been under US sanctions for years, and the US recently took additional steps to try to control Wagner’s access to arms.
Wagner Group mercenaries have also been accused by Western countries and UN experts of numerous human rights abuses across Africa, including in the Central African Republic, Libya and Mali. Earlier this month. Foreign Minister Antony Blinken announced that he has described the Wagner Group as an “entity of particular importance” for its activities in the Central African Republic.
Chollet also urged Serbia to introduce sanctions against its traditional Slavic ally, Russia.
“We believe that countries should sign the sanctions and the reason why we believe that is that Russia’s actions should not only be condemned but also punished,” he said. “Russia wages a brutal, unjustified war against Ukraine every day. We must stand together to ensure that this behavior is clear, that this behavior is unacceptable.”
The US envoy this week kicked off a tour of several Balkan countries in a visit focused on international efforts to normalize relations between Kosovo and Serbia after weeks of heightened tensions. The former Serbian province declared its independence in 2008, which Serbia and Russia do not recognize.