North Korea has sent military equipment to Russia for use by the Wagner Group, the private army fighting for Moscow in Ukraine, and Pyongyang is planning further deliveries, a top White House official said on Thursday.
US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the delivery occurred last month and was paid for by the Russia-based mercenary company, although the amount of equipment delivered "will not change battlefield dynamics in Ukraine."
"Last month, North Korea delivered infantry rockets and missiles into Russia for use by Wagner," Mr Kirby told reporters. "We are certainly concerned that North Korea is planning to deliver more military equipment."
Mr Kirby said the delivery marks the latest example of Wagner's expanding influence.
"Wagner's independence from the Russian defence ministry has only increased and elevated over the course of the 10 months of this war," Mr Kirby said.
He claimed that in certain instances, Russian military officials are "actually subordinate" to Wagner's command.
The White House singled out Wagner's leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, a close confidant to Russian President Vladimir Putin, for the group's tactics both on the battlefield and in recruiting Russians.
Mr Kirby said Wagner has about 50,000 personnel deployed to Ukraine, including 10,0000 contractors and 40,000 thousand convicts.
Thousands of prisoners, many of them locked up for violent crimes, have volunteered to fight in Ukraine or are being pressed into service as Russia scrambles to find more men for the front lines.
Washington believes 1,000 Wagner fighters have been killed in "recent fighting" in Ukraine.
"We believe that 90 per cent of those 1,000 fighters were in fact convicts," Mr Kirby said. "It's pretty clear to us that Mr Prigozhin has absolutely no regard for life whatsoever, certainly not Ukrainian lives, but I'd go so far as to say not Russian lives either."
The White House made the claims in tandem with an announcement that Washington was expanding its classification of the group as a "military end user." This does not go as far as classifying Wagner as a foreign terrorist organisation, despite calls to do so from Congressional leaders.
A bipartisan group of Senators this month introduced the Holding Accountable Russian Mercenaries (HARM) Act, that would require the designation of Wagner Group as a foreign terrorist organisation.
“Putin and his cronies will stop at nothing to accomplish their objectives, including employing mercenaries like the Wagner Group to commit atrocities on their behalf,” Senator Roger Wicker, who introduced the bill, said in a statement.
“The US should call this shadow army what it is: a foreign terrorist group. We must hold them accountable along with any who support them."
Mr Kirby argued on Thursday that the new "military end user" designation will help to cut off equipment sources for the group.
"We want to restrict as much as we can their lifelines to procurement going forward around the world," he added.
The announcement follows Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's historic visit to Washington, where he met with US President Biden and delivered a rousing address to a joint session of Congress urging enhance support.
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A building burned from a strike as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, in Bakhmut. Reuters -
Antonina, a refugee from Bakhmut in Donetsk region, with dogs she rescued in Izyum, Kharkiv. AFP -
A resident gives her neighbours hot food brought by volunteers in Izyum. AFP -
A Ukrainian soldier salutes as he works to build a bunker with sand in Bakhmut. Reuters -
Volodymyr Kovalov, 77, carries tree branches attached to his bike as he collects wood for heating and cooking in Kherson region. AFP -
A local resident takes pictures of a destroyed monastery in Dolyna, eastern Ukraine. AFP -
A decoy dummy made with the clothes of a Russian soldier at the entrance of a destroyed cinema in Kamyanka, eastern Ukraine. AFP -
Destroyed houses in the city of Kamyanka. AFP -
Caesar, 50, a Russian who joined the Freedom of Russia Legion to fight on the side of Ukraine, stands in front of a destroyed monastery in Dolyna. AFP -
An employee stands next to a shelter at a stainless pipes plant in Nikopol, Dnipropetrovsk region. AFP -
Ivan and Iryna Kalinin before the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Iryna, who was pregnant, was killed in a Russian air strike on Mariupol's maternity hospital. Ivan returned to the occupied city to rebury his wife and baby. AP -
Natalia, 67, sits inside her house that was damaged in a Russian military strike, in Kramatorsk, Ukraine. Reuters -
Ukrainian soldiers ride in a military vehicle in Bakhmut, a city in the Donetsk enclave. AP -
Smoke billows from a building on fire after a Russian attack in Bakhmut. AP -
Sasha and her grandfather stand outside their home in Bakhmut. AP -
Ukrainian soldiers set up a barricade in Bakhmut. AP -
Nastya carries her cat as her mother Anna says goodbye to neighbours with whom they lived for months in a basement during Russian attacks in Soledar, a city in the Donetsk enclave of Ukraine. AP -
Anna and Nastya in the basement during a Russian attack nearby. AP -
A Ukrainian soldier is wheeled on a stretcher at a hospital in the Donetsk enclave. AP -
A woman looks a building damaged by Russian shelling in Kherson. AFP -
Oleksandra Koshkina, 85, sits in a car as she returns to her village of Torske, in the Donetsk enclave. Reuters -
A resident of Bakhmut walks along an empty street. Reuters -
A street market in Bakhmut. Reuters -
A Ukrainian soldier poses for a picture in the Donetsk enclave. Reuters -
Officials tend to a patient on a plane carrying Ukrainian Jewish refugees as they wait to disembark at Israel's Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv. AFP
