In Ukraine, a criminal case was opened against the commander of the PMC Wagner

The Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine opened a criminal case against the commander of the Wagner PMC Dmitry Utkin. About it writes press service of the department.

The case was initiated under articles on encroachment on the territorial integrity and inviolability of the country, as well as on 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 Ukrainian Criminal Code) ).

According to the investigation, Utkin, by prior conspiracy with officials of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and under their control, commanded combat units in Donetsk and Luhansk regions from July 2014 to March 2015. It is noted that in January and February 2014, Utkin’s units fought intensively in the Debaltseve direction. According to the prosecutor’s office, during the fighting, Utkin was directly subordinate to the commander of the 2nd Army Corps, Lieutenant General of the Russian Armed Forces.

“The issue of declaring the suspect on the wanted list is being resolved,” the press service of the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine added.

Since 2013, Dmitry Utkin has been the commander of the 700th separate special forces detachment of the 2nd separate brigade of the GRU special forces of the Ministry of Defense. After retirement, he worked for Moran Security Group, participated in the Syrian expedition of the Slavic Corps in 2013. Since 2014 – the commander of his own unit, which, according to his call sign, received the code name “PMC Wagner”.

In 2014-2015, PMCs were present in the territories of the self-proclaimed DPR and LPR. Since the fall of 2015, the activities of Wagner PMC have been moved to Syria. It is believed that this particular unit played a decisive role in the storming of Palmyra.

In December 2016, Dmitry Utkin was spotted at a reception in the Kremlin in honor of the Day of Heroes of the Fatherland. Later, the press secretary of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov confirmed that Utkin was present at the banquet among those invited from the Novgorod region, as he was a “holder of the Orders of Courage.” At the same time, Peskov did not say anything about Utkin’s connection with PMC Wagner.

December 13 of this year, the European Union introduced sanctions against PMC Wagner and a number of associated individuals and organizations that posed a threat in Libya, Syria and Ukraine. In addition to the company itself, eight people, in particular, including Dmitry Utkin, fell under the sanctions.