Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has asked Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko to extradite 28 contractors of the Russian private military company Wagner Group to Ukraine on charges of fighting alongside Russian-backed militants in the eastern Donbas.
“I hope that all suspects in terrorist activities on the territory of Ukraine will be transferred to us for prosecution in accordance with the current international legal documents,” Zelensky told Lukashenko in a telephone conversation on Aug. 5, according to Ukraine’s Presidential Office.
The readout of the conversation between the two presidents from Lukashenko’s press service did not mention Zelensky’s request.
The 28 suspects are among the 33 Wagner mercenaries detained near Minsk, the capital of Belarus, on July 29. Belarusian law enforcement allege that they intended to destabilize the country ahead of the Aug. 9 presidential election.
Russia has denied these allegations. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on July 31 that the 33 men were in transit to Istanbul before flying to “a third country” and called for their release.
Belarussian authorities also claimed that there were up to 200 more Wagner militants at large in Belarus and that efforts to locate them continue.
Ukraine’s Presidential Office first said it would request the extradition of militants suspected of war crimes in Donbas on July 30, after the Belarusian authorities published a list of the 33 detained mercenaries.
“Ukraine will insist on the extradition of all persons involved in war crimes in the temporarily occupied territories and regarding whom the Security Service of Ukraine has collected sufficient evidence,” the Presidential Office said on July 30.
Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office said on July 31 that it would request the extradition of 28 suspects. There a nine Ukrainian citizens among the 28 mercenaries, the prosecution added.
“The Ukrainian side expressed its intention to demand the extradition of these people to Ukraine in order to bring them to justice for crimes related to illegal participation in the armed conflict in Donbas,” the Prosecutor General’s Office said.
The Wagner Group is a Russian paramilitary organization believed to be run by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian businessman with close links to President Vladimir Putin. Its fighters have reportedly taken part in conflicts in Ukraine, Syria, Libya and several other countries in Africa.
