In the framework of ongoing cooperation with the United Nations’ bodies and agencies, our Association informed the Working Group on the Use of Mercenaries for preparing its 2026 thematic report to the General Assembly on the use of mercenaries, mercenary-related actors, and private military and security companies in organised criminal activities and illicit networks.
The ARC’s submission, prepared by Anna Prykhodko, Eduard Pleshko, and other experts and published on the official UN web-sources in August, reminded the UN again that Russia-controlled mercenaries committed in Ukraine, during the ongoing aggression, gross violations of international humanitarian and human rights law.
The ARC’s submission stressed that the International Court of Justice concluded in the Judgment, dated 31 January 2024, that Russia has violated, after 2014, its obligations under Article 9, paragraph 1, of the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism regarding the situation in Ukraine.
ARC’s submissions stressed again the relevant examples of illegal “Wagner Group” activities in issues of illegal cargo and illicit goods trafficking from and to the Sevastopol ship repair plant “Persey,” as well as the usage of illegal “Post of Crimea,” “Post of Donbas,” and “Sberbank” for funding Russian mercenaries in Ukraine.
Also the example of the ethnic criminal group from Yalta, connected with Russia-controlled mercenaries, also as with child trafficking and child pornography, as well as with forced labour in building sector, as the shadow sponsor of so-called “Friends of Crimea” project, co-ordinated by the Russian intelligence, with participation of extremists and marginal politicians from Austria, France, Germany, Italy, etc., that was proved additionally in the case of Jeffrey Epstein.
ARC’s submissions added that Russia-controlled mercenaries are used in Russian shadow fleet activities, including the recruitment and employment of such persons on such ships as alleged “technicians” or “supernumeraries” via Russian crewing agencies connected with the occupied maritime regions of Ukraine, under coordinated instructions to these crewings from their supervisors from the Russian special services.
ARC’s submissions summarized that such Russia-controlled mercenaries as “crew members” commit active military actions, including sabotage, that cause real damage or casualties, these actions may constitute a war crime of perfidy, since this constitutes an abuse of the immunities of a supposedly “peaceful” merchant ship; it turns vessels of the shadow fleet into Russia’s auxiliary military vessels as the legitimate military target.
So the operations of civilized countries at sea, constant monitoring and analysis of the shadow fleet, are a model that can not only be but also needs to be scaled up in the Baltic Sea, the Black Sea, and the Mediterranean Sea, as well as to work out its use in the Arctic regions, as a logical response to the widespread hostile activities of Russia, which operates with the support of Russia-controlled mercenaries, hidden in the shadow fleet tanker crews.
Our cooperation with the UN bodies on those issues will be continued; let us remind, that previous ARC submissions to the pointed Working Group were reflected in its Report A/80/329, published this February, also as relevant Associaiton’s researches, published by the UN and dedicated to role of the artificial intelligence in the Russian mercenaries’ criminal activities.
