STATEMENT FROM PAYBACK4UKRAINE AND KEY UKRAINIAN GOVERNMENT FIGURES ON THE HOUSE OF COMMONS FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE’S REPORT “Guns for gold: the wagner network exposed”

London, UK, 26 July 2023

Ukraine’s global lawfare campaign welcomes House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee Report and joins FAC in urging the UK Government to take decisive action in response.

London – 26 July 2023

Payback4Ukraine – and its coordinating law firm, McCue Jury & Partners – today applaud the release of the Foreign Affairs Committee’s (FAC’s) report into the activity of Wagner Group. 

London-based law firm McCue Jury and Partners is the architect of Ukraine’s Civil Society Lawfare Programme. The programme campaigns under the name Payback4Ukraine with the full backing and support of Ukraine’s Government. Its mission is to obtain justice and recovery of the actual losses for ordinary Ukrainian victims of Putin’s illegal war. Payback4Ukraine leads a global programme of mass Ukrainian victim-led litigations, targeting the Russian war machine’s assets outside of Russia and giving them to Ukrainian victims as reparations. 

McCue Jury & Partners’ Senior Partner and head of Payback4Ukraine, Dr Jason McCue, gave evidence to the FAC in November 2022. The firm simultaneously announced the first step in proceedings brought under the Payback4Ukraine programme for Ukrainian evacuees in the UK against Wagner Group. The Payback4Ukraine UK action alleges Wagner Group is a terrorist organisation and was sponsored by Putin’s regime to commit acts of terrorism in Ukraine.

The FAC’s report, released today:

• Highlights how the UK Government’s actions to date are wholly insufficient to take on a network as complicated as Wagner Group.
• Recommends immediate proscription of Wagner Group as a terrorist organisation and highlights how the group’s actions have direct national security implications for the UK by (i) corrupting rules based international relations, (ii) instigating regional instability, (iii) threatening international order and (iv) emboldening other violent groups.
• Details Wagner Group’s activities across up to as many as 17 countries around the world. It names over 50 entities and individuals that should further be sanctioned by the US, UK and/or the EU but who are currently not sanctioned.
• Recommends that countries that deal with Wagner Group should face diplomatic and financial consequences, whilst also being given a route out from co-operating with Wagner Group and other similar private military companies, particularly in Africa.
• Relies on the evidence of Dr McCue that proscription as a terror organisation would have a significant impact on Wagner Group and its ability to operate with apparent impunity around the world.

Dr McCue said:

“When I gave evidence to the Foreign Affairs Committee in 2022, I would never have expected to be sat here almost nine months later – with all that has happened in that time – to find that Wagner Group was still not designated as a terrorist organisation by the UK Government and was still operating with relative impunity around the world.    

Payback4Ukraine applauds the work of the Foreign Affairs Committee in bringing this report to fruition. It is one of the most comprehensive accounts to date of Wagner’s operations and shows how the network’s tentacles extend across continents, mostly for the Kremlin’s benefit. Finally, it is there in black and white: Wagner Group is a terrorist organisation and now is the time to act. 

Proscription as a terrorist organisation – which we have been calling for since May 2022 – is now surely a formality. More must be done to curb the immediate threat of Wagner in Ukraine and Africa before it becomes a model that is adopted further by autocrats all over the world. Russia’s success in utilising Wagner as a deniable tool of its illegal foreign policy will otherwise become a model tool of every dictator.”

Major General Budanov, Chief of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of Ukraine said:

The government of the United Kingdom has always been at the forefront in terms of solidarity and support for the Ukrainian people. The issue of holding accountable all criminal groups and terrorist organizations of Putin's regime remains relevant. In this challenging work, we should acknowledge the key role of the initiative and efforts of the Payback4Ukraine team in achieving justice for every Ukrainian.”

Mykhailo Podolyak, Adviser to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine said:

“When Putin and Prigozhin have little money, and no way to spend it, or travel – because they are proscribed terrorists – we will thank the courage of those who fought in the theatre of lawfare for Ukraine and the free world.”

Fedir Venislavski, Representative of the President of Ukraine in the Constitutional Court of Ukraine said:

“The Parliament of the United Kingdom once again demonstrated its unwavering respect for universally recognized norms of international law and its consistent and unwavering support for the Ukrainian people. The report of the Foreign Affairs Committee is categorical: Wagner is a terrorist group whose activities pose a serious threat to the world. Now, we must all consolidate our efforts and ensure their inevitable accountability, no matter where they are or where they hide. We are proud of the work accomplished by the Payback4Ukraine team and urge others to do the same. It is more important than ever for the world to show dictators that the terrorist organizations they have spawned will be held accountable for all committed war crimes and crimes against humanity.”

Colonel Richard Kemp CBE, Ambassador to Payback4Ukraine said:

“The Foreign Affairs Committee report clearly demonstrates that Wagner Group is an active and dangerous terrorist organization. It is not only a threat to Ukrainian civilians but also to British citizens around the world. The government has a direct responsibility to immediately proscribe Wagner to help counter its terrorist actions and potentially save innocent lives.”

Professor Jason Wright (Partner, US law firm Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle and Adjunct Professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center), Payback4Ukraine member said:

“The FAC report will be brought to the attention of the U.S. Government. There is legislation pending in the U.S. Congress to direct the Secretary of State to designate the Wagner Group as a foreign terrorist organization. The Secretary of State doesn't have to wait for Congress - he should take heed of FAC’s report and designate as a FTO immediately.

It will then be for Wagner Group's owners, facilitators, and members to face the full might of international justice. Civil society has a key role to play in this, and Payback4Ukraine's lawfare campaign is vital to dismantling that which should never have been allowed to grow in the first place.”

Notes to Editors

Dr Jason McCue, Senior Partner, McCue Jury & Partners, gave evidence to the Committee session “The Wagner Group and beyond, proxy Private Military Companies” on 1 November 2022. His evidence is referred to on page 42 of the FAC’s report released today.

McCue Jury & Partners also recently represented Bellingcat against Wagner Group in a SLAPP lawsuit designed to silence the independent investigative collective. The case was struck out on 18 May 2022.

For further information please contact:

Toby Burnham [email protected]