Moldovan and Ukrainian law enforcement officers detained a group of recruiters for a Russian private military company: they turned out to be citizens of Ukraine and Moldova who participated in hostilities on the side of the Russians.
Law enforcement agencies of Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova, coordinated by Europol, have exposed a criminal group that was recruiting people into the Russian private military company "Wagner". This was reported by UNN with reference to the Office of the Prosecutor General.
Details
This international special operation is called "Avengers II": it involved employees of the Main Investigation Department, the Department of Strategic Investigations and Criminal Investigation of the National Police of Ukraine, as well as units for combating organized crime and criminal prosecutions of the National Inspectorate of Investigations of the Main Police Inspectorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Moldova – coordinated by the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, Europol and its AP CIC project.
The special operation took place under the procedural guidance of the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine jointly with the Prosecutor's Office for Combating Organized Crime and Special Cases of the Republic of Moldova.
Through the joint efforts of Ukrainian and Moldovan law enforcement officers, 11 citizens of Ukraine who joined the Wagner PMC in 2022–2024 were identified. Citizens of Moldova who also joined the Russian PMC were also identified.
After detaining the suspects, law enforcement officers found and seized documents, computer equipment, mobile phones, and other information carriers containing evidence of recruitment, conditions of service in the Wagner PMC, and confirming participation in hostilities against Ukraine on the side of the Russian occupation forces.
The detained citizens of Ukraine were notified of suspicion of high treason (Part 2 of Article 111 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine), one citizen of Moldova was notified of suspicion of mercenary activities (Part 4 of Article 447 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine), and 15 other citizens of Moldova were notified of suspicion of participation in armed conflicts as part of a PMC (Paragraph 1 of Article 141 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Moldova).
All detainees face a long prison sentence, up to life imprisonment.
Recall
Earlier, UNN reported that Moldova is delaying the accreditation of the Russian ambassador in Chisinau due to behavior "that does not comply with diplomatic norms".
