Wagner forces took control of the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don as part of a short-lived mutiny in June
Wagner, the Russian mercenary group, is set to be proscribed as a terrorist group by the UK government – meaning it will be illegal to be a member or support the organisation.
A draft order to be laid in Parliament will allow its assets to be categorised as terrorist property and seized.
The home secretary said Wagner was “violent and destructive… a military tool of Vladimir Putin’s Russia”.
She said its work in Ukraine and Africa was a “threat to global security”.
Suella Braverman added: “Wagner’s continuing destabilising activities only continue to serve the Kremlin’s political goals.”
“They are terrorists, plain and simple – and this proscription order makes that clear in UK law.”
Wagner had played a key role in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as well as operating in countries in Africa including Syria, Libya and Mali.
Its fighters have been accused of a number crimes including killing and torturing Ukrainian citizens.
In 2020, the US said Wagner soldiers had planted landmines around the Libyan capital, Tripoli.
And in July, the UK said the group had carried out “executions and torture in Mali and the Central African Republic”.
The group’s future was thrown into uncertainty earlier this year when its leader Yevgeny Prigozhin staged a failed coup against Russia’s military leader.
Russian officials said Prigozhin, who founded the group in 2014, died in a plane crash on 23 August.
The group’s name will now be added alongside other proscribed organisations in the UK such as Hamas and Boko Haram.
The Terrorism Act 2000 gives the home secretary the power to proscribe an organisation if they believe it is concerned in terrorism.
The proscription order will make it a criminal offence to support the group – including by arranging a meeting aimed at furthering the organisation’s activities.
Committing a proscription offence could lead to 14 years in prison or a fine of up to £5,000.
The government had come under pressure from MPs for some months to proscribe the group.
Earlier this year, Labour’s shadow foreign secretary David Lammy urged the government to proscribe Wagner saying it was “responsible for the appalling atrocities in Ukraine and across the world”.
The Foreign Office had imposed sanctions on the group, including freezing the assets of Prigozhin and several top commanders.
However, Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee and Conservative MP Alicia Kearns said in July: “Sanctions are not enough – the UK needs to proscribe the Wagner group for what it is: a terrorist organisation.”
Her committee also produced a report which said the government had been “remarkably complacent” and criticised its “dismal lack of understanding of Wagner’s hold beyond Europe, in particular their grip on African states”.
