As we wrote earlier, in 2025 our Association informed the UN Working Group on the Use of Mercenaries about Russia-controlled mercenaries and mercenary-related actors used as tools in situation of Russian aggression and occupation of the Ukrainian territories.
We did remind that Russia uses illegally its own bank system to finance mercenaries on Russia-occupied territory of Ukraine, also the fake “Post of Crimea” in Russia-occupied Crimea, parts of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhya regions, and also the illegal “Post of Donbas” in East Ukraine, as de-facto structure units of “Post of Russia.”
We reminded about illegal “Wagner Group” activities in issues of illegal cargo and illicit goods trafficking in 2022-2023 from and to the Sevastopol ship repair plant, “Persey,” as a de facto private maritime port that covered traffic to Syrian, Lebanese, and Libyan ports and included arms and drug trafficking.
Later the Report A/80/329 of the UN Working Group was published, and, mentioning our Association materials, it stated that mercenaries are funded through a myriad of formal and informal ways to disguise the proxy relationship, including state banks, special budgets, defense budgets, private contracts, the sale of resources, materials and goods supplied by states, cryptocurrencies, and through resource concessions.
Report A/80/329 also mentioned our submission, adding that engaging mercenaries undermines international order, sovereignty, territorial integrity, and sustainable development, whereby such actors are the tool for occupation of the territories.
Report A/80/329 was the ground for UN General Assembly Resolution 80/194 on 15 December 2025, which demanded states ensure that not only their territories, but other territories under their control, are not used for the recruitment, assembly, financing, training, protection, or transit of mercenaries for the planning of activities designed to dismember or impair, totally or in part, the territorial integrity or political unity of sovereign and independent states.
Our cooperation with the UN Working Group on the Use of Mercenaries continues, and now we have preliminary communication with UN officials regarding the preparation of the next report and resolutions on issues of mercenaries. Relevant materials include the development of the situation in the Russia-occupied territories, including Crimea, and the role of Russia-controlled mercenaries as illegal parts of the Russian shadow fleet’s crews.
