UN report on Libya mercenaries 'unfounded,' says Russia
A Foreign Ministry official dismissed the findings of the report on Wagner Group's operations in Libya and called for an investigation into why it was leaked.
A United Nations report that claimed a private Russian army is fighting on behalf of Libya’s eastern warlord was based on rigged and biased data, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.
In an interview with state-run Russian agency RIA Novosti, Foreign Ministry official Petr Ilichev said the claims made in the report were “simply unfounded.”
“The report is built on the basis of unverified or clearly rigged data and is aimed at discrediting Russian policies,” he said. “The rumors about the presence in Libya of the notorious Russian 'mercenaries' are based on unfair information.”
The 57-page report drafted by UN sanctions monitors and obtained by Reuters said up to 1,200 military contractors from the Russian paramilitary organization Wagner Group were operating in Libya to bolster the forces of renegade commander Khalifa Hifter in Libya.
