The National Assembly on Tuesday unanimously adopted a resolution calling for the Russian paramilitary group Wagner, accused of abuses in Ukraine and Africa, to be placed on the European Union’s list of terrorist organizations. The text, without binding value, invites the French government “to mobilize diplomatically” so that the EU accedes to this request, which should make it possible to sanction more effectively the members of Wagner and their supporters, in particular financially.
A resolution co-signed by MPs from different majority groups
Led by Renaissance MP Benjamin Haddad, the resolution was co-signed by deputies from the various majority groups, but also by elected officials from the socialist, environmentalist and LR ranks. It targets in particular the “numerous abuses against the civilian population” in Ukraine committed by this group of mercenaries, some of which could be qualified as “war crimes”.
“The activity of the Wagner group meets the European definition of terrorism”, pleaded in the hemicycle Benjamin Haddad, describing an “army of chaos” standing “alongside Putin’s Russia”, and whose members “sow instability and violence”.
“No direct additional effect,” says Colonna
The text quotes in particular the German intelligence services, according to which Wagner “took part in the summary executions, the mutilations and the acts of torture committed against civilians in the Ukrainian locality of Boutcha”. In addition to Ukraine, the resolution also notes abuses in Syria and in several African countries such as Mali or the Central African Republic.
The head of French diplomacy, Catherine Colonna, welcomed the resolution of the deputies in the hemicycle, after having listed the numerous abuses attributed to the Wagner group and cited the sanctions already taken by the EU. “From a strictly legal point of view”, the group’s terrorist designation by the EU would have “no direct additional effect”, she said. But “we must not underestimate the symbolic importance of such a designation, nor the dissuasive character that it could have vis-à-vis the States which would be tempted by an appeal” to Wagner, she said. estimated.
An upcoming resolution on the deportations of Ukrainian children
In mid-March, the Lithuanian Parliament has already adopted a resolution affirming that “Wagner is a terrorist organization”, arousing the thanks of kyiv. French deputies had expressed their support for Ukraine at the end of March by adopting a resolution recognizing as a genocide the Holodomor, this famine caused in the early 1930s in Ukraine by the Soviet authorities.
Volodymyr Zelensky had thanked them for this gesture which responded to a strong expectation of kyiv about the painful memory of this murderous famine, revived by the Russian invasion of the country. Russia had for its part replied by castigating an “anti-Russian zeal” of the French National Assembly.
Another resolution relating to the conflict in Ukraine could soon be examined in session. Carried by Renaissance MP Pieyre-Alexandre Anglade, it aims to denounce the deportations of Ukrainian children by Russia, in a “deliberate strategy of destruction of the national identity and Ukrainian society”.