called it a tactical regrouping, that s how they reframed it. the head of the paramilitary wagner group is often at odds with russia s top military officials told the ministry in a video to, quote, stop lying and, quote, this is called fleeing and not regrouping. russia s leader vladimir putin has been charged with war crimes by the icc. on thursday russia said it would put the list of judges from the international criminal court and its chief prosecutor on russia s wanted list. i spoke with mr. khan on wednesday before russia made that announcement and where the investigation now stands. so it s been about two months since the icc issued arrest warrants for vladimir putin and the russian commissioner for children s rights. where do things stand now? well, the warrants have been issued and we continue our investigations. as i said when we spoke for the first time ukraine s a crime scene. there s many allegations we re receiving of torture, of prisoners of war being treated terribly,
to the attention of police over nine alleged incidents. turning to the war in ukraine now and a former commander with the russian paramilitary wagner group has claimed asylum in norway after deserting from the mercenary organisation. andrey medvedev who s 26 crossed the border into norway last friday, where he was detained by border guards. stephanie prenticejoins me now from our newsroom in london. she has been covering the story for us. in the first instance, reminders what the wagner group do? , . . , do? they are an independent paramilitary do? they are an independent paramilitary organisation. - do? they are an independent l paramilitary organisation. they are closely tied to the russian state and work alongside them in a number of territories. we
i think it will be using trans people, already one of the most vulnerable, stigmatised groups in our society, as a political weapon, and i think that will be unconscionable and indefensible and really quite disgraceful. labour say the uk and scottish governments need to get round the table and find a solution to this. but it looks like it will be the courts that soon beckon now. chris mason, bbc news, in edinburgh. still to come a bit later in the programme, we ll look at the war in ukraine and what light the defection of a general from the russian mercenary organisation, the wagner group, could shed on the fighting. but first, to the search and rescue operation in nepal now and teams there say they have recovered two more bodies from sunday s plane crash, near the city of pokhara. there were 72 people on board the passenger plane from the capital kathmandu and two people are still unaccounted for. rescue workers say it s unlikely that there are any survivors.
do know, increasingly as a conflict in ukraine has developed, the group has increased its presence there. as many as 10% of the troops on the ground right now could be from the wagner group. the general you mentioned, andrey medvedev was said to be a high commanding general in the group. what he s saying by his lawyers is he witnessing human rights abuses, war crimes and that led him to want to leave the group. he also said he witnessed crimes against members of the group internally and at the internal police force was responsible for executing anyone who did try to defect. he has made it across into norway. the details we do have, if they are correct, he would be one of the first soldiers from the group to defect to the west. something we do know is that the founder of the wagner group has spoken out against this defection and
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