On April 18, 2023, Jovana Jezdimirovic Ranito was interviewed by the leading daily newspaper in Portugal, Público. She was invited, as an expert on international regulation of private military and security companies, to answer questions about possibility to hold Wagner group accountable for number of alleged crimes they committed fighting against Ukrainian troops.
The main question posed was about reasons holding international community back in investigating and holding group accountable for allegedly committed war crimes. Jovana explained that currently there is no international regulation or law prohibiting use of entities such as Wagner group. This group has been repeatedly and mistakenly called mercenary, and that doesn’t support an effort to properly define and regulate such entities. Wagner group doesn’t fit this definition, because to be defined as a mercenary, participants need to satisfy four criterions given in Geneva’s conventions. When considering Wagner, that is not the case. On one hand, being mercenary would imply not to belong to any side of the conflict, which in this case is not correct. As far as is known, large majority of combatants involved are Russian nationals. On the other hand, to be classified as a mercenary, these combatants should be earning significantly more than regular combatants. This, too is also hard to prove, as it depends what we are comparing to.
She explained the most approachable definition can be found in international law is of unlawful combatants. Using this classification, Ukraine can hold individual members of Wagner group as an unlawful combatant on their territory and bring them after the conflict ends to Ukrainian justice.
Unfortunately, that still leaves Wagner group,, as a corporate entity, unaccountable. To allow this, under existing international regulation, Wagner Group would need to be considered de facto working for Russia, as de jure it is not possible to prove it. In that case, same as International Court of Justice in Hague issued earlier this year a mandate to arrest Vladimir Putin for the war crimes committed by Russia in Ukraine, would be possible to attribute the crimes of Wagner group under the same charge. Her conclusion was to address the corporate accountability and political challenges these entities pose, new definition of such entities is needed and new regulation to accompany it.
