Russian president Vladimir Putin is pardoning convicts to allow them to fight in Ukraine as members of the Wagner paramilitary group, the Kremlin has admitted.

Wagner is playing an increasingly prominent role on the front lines as Russia’s full-scale invasion enters its 12th month. The Kremlin on Friday dismissed the US Treasury’s move to label Yevgeny Prigozhin’s group a “transnational criminal organisation”.

Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said prisoners were being pardoned “in strict adherence with Russian law” and praised one convicted armed robber recruited by Wagner for “heroism” on the battlefield after the president gave him a medal. Russian law gives Putin sole authority to pardon prisoners, though Peskov said “there are open decrees and there are decrees marked classified”, declining to comment further.