Wagner PMC head served with suspicion of encroachment on Ukraine's territorial integrity
Ukrainian law enforcement officials reported suspicion of encroachment on the territorial integrity of Ukraine to a Russian citizen, head of the Wagner private Russian military company Dmitry Utkin, the Prosecutor General's Office (PGO) press service said on Thursday.
"A citizen of Russia, head of the Wagner private military company was informed about suspicion of encroachment on the territorial integrity and inviolability of Ukraine, as well as complicity in the conduct of an aggressive war (Part 3 of Article 110, Part 5 of Article 27), Part 2 of Article 28, Part 2 of Article 437 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine)," the PGO said.
It does not specify the name of the suspect, but sources of the agency in law enforcement reported that it was about Utkin.
The prosecutor's office said the suspect, being in the temporarily occupied territory of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, the head of the Wagner PMC in the period from July 2014 to March 2015, acting by prior conspiracy with officials of the Russian Armed Forces and under their control, exercised command of subordinates subdivisions of militants and coordinated their actions.
"They, together with units of the Russian regular troops and illegal armed formations, fought against the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as a result of which they violated the territorial integrity of our state by temporarily occupying a part of its territory," the law enforcement officers said.
Later, the State Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said the special services were able to document the facts of the intensive shelling by the Wagner PMC militants of the Ukrainian positions in the Debaltseve direction.
"According to the information received in these battles, the PMC members suffered heavy losses due to the rebuff by units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine," the SBU said.
They also said that during his stay in the temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, Utkin coordinated his actions with the former commander of the second army corps of Russia.
"At present, a pretrial investigation is underway. The issue of declaring the suspect on the international wanted list to be prosecuted for crimes against the state security of Ukraine is being resolved," the SBU said.
