Putin's Private Army Facing Legal Action, Accused of Ukraine 'War Crimes'

Russia's mercenary organization, Wagner, is facing legal action from a London-based law firm for its alleged "terrorism" in what the firm says is an "illegal war in Ukraine."

McCue Jury and Partners law firm was requested to present evidence to the United Kingdom Parliament on Tuesday regarding its case against the military group, according to a press release. Wagner operates as Russian President Vladimir Putin's private army and has been accused of war crimes in the past.

"There are times when governments—whether through domestic or international systems, courts, or inter-governmental agencies—are simply too slow or cannot respond adequately to resolve certain global crises and provide justice, let alone to the victims," the firm wrote in its release. "The current failure of the international community to effectively tackle Putin's private army, Wagner, and its use of terrorism within his illegal war in Ukraine is a striking example of that."

According to a tweet from McCue Jury and Partners, Jason McCue, the firm's senior partner, presented evidence of Wagner's crimes to the Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee Tuesday afternoon.

"This action is about accountability and just reparations against Putin's state-sponsored terrorism," McCue said in a later tweet.

The law firm alleged that Wagner has used "torture, murder and rape as weapons of war to terrorize civilian populations into submission" during Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The law firm also said that complaints against the private military group were first brought to U.K.'s High Court by Ukrainian victims, who launched legal action against the military group to seek "accountability and reparations."

"Not only is Putin's war in Ukraine an inherently illegal one, but it is also illegal in the way it is being waged—purposely inflicting significant loss and damage on Ukrainian civilians," McCue Jury and Partners wrote. "Wagner are infamous for their brutality and their ability to operate outside of the law, acting as a ... terrorist organization and playing an integral part in Putin's criminal foreign policy."

According to a report from the BBC, Wagner was first put "into action" during Russia's annexation of the Crimean peninsula in 2014. The group also was believed to have been involved in Russia's "false flag" attacks leading up to the invasion of Ukraine to give the Kremlin a "pretext for attacking."

In April, the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine announced in a Facebook post that three members of Wagner were being investigated for alleged war crimes committed while Russia occupied the town of Motizhyn in March. According to the report, the men being questioned "robbed civilians, tortured, killed and burned their homes."

Audio intercepted and published by the German weekly magazine Der Spiegel in April also alleged that Wagner mercenaries were responsible for the "atrocities" in the Ukrainian town of Bucha. Several victims that were discovered after Russian troops withdrew from the town were found with hands tied behind their backs and showed signs of torture, according to the report.

McCue Jury and Partners wrote that bringing Ukrainian victims' complaints against Wagner to court is a "fitting way" for the U.K. to support "its friends in Ukraine." According to the release, the case will be funded through crowdfunding.

"We believe this is the first time in history that a private military company has been sued for its use of terrorism and for a conspiracy with a rogue paymaster state to commit an illegal war," read the firm's release. "The action has the potential to change fundamentally the way the world addresses the proxy use of such organizations by regimes that seek to distance themselves and hide from their international crimes."

Newsweek has contacted McCue Jury and Partners as well as the Russian defense ministry for comment.