The leader of the Russian private army~, Wagner, claims that his side lost more than 20,000 combatants during the drawn-out battle for Bakhmut, and that around 20% of the 50,000 Russian prisoners he recruited to participate in the 15-month war died in the eastern Ukrainian city. Wagner was responsible for recruiting Russian convicts to fight in the conflict.
This number stands in stark contrast to Moscow’s claims, which are widely disputed, that it only lost a little more than 6,000 personnel during the conflict. Furthermore, this number is larger than the official estimate of 15,000 Soviet troops that were killed during the Afghanistan war between 1979 and 1989.
Since Russia launched its all-out invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the Ukrainian government has not disclosed the number of its service members who have been killed. It is estimated that the nine-month battle for Bakhmut was responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of soldiers, many of them were convicted criminals who had reportedly received little training before being dispatched to the front lines.
Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin said in an interview published late Tuesday with Konstantin Dolgov, a pro-Kremlin political strategist, that Russia’s invasion goal of “demilitarizing” Ukraine has backfired because Kyiv’s military has become stronger as a result of the supply of weapons and training by Kyiv’s Western allies. This is according to what Prigozhin said in the interview. Prigozhin also stated that Kremlin soldiers were responsible for the deaths of civilians during the conflict, which is something that Moscow has categorically and repeatedly denied.
During the interview on Tuesday, he also stated that it was feasible that Russian soldiers would be forced out of southern and eastern Ukraine as well as the annexed territory of Crimea if Kiev’s projected counteroffensive in the coming weeks received continuing support from the West. “A pessimistic scenario: the Ukrainians are given missiles, they prepare troops, and of course they will continue their offensive, try to counterattack,” he stated. “An optimistic scenario:” “They are going to attack Crimea, and they are going to try to blow up the bridge that connects Crimea to the Russian mainland in an effort to cut off our supply lines. Because of this, we need to get ready for a fierce battle.
Prigozhin, a wealthy businessman who has had longstanding relations to Russian President Vladimir Putin, is notorious for his bombast, which is frequently seasoned with obscenities. He is also renowned for making questionable assertions in the past, some of which he later recanted. A video of Hitler yelling, cursing, and pointing at approximately 30 uniformed bodies lying on the ground earlier this month was distributed by his spokespeople. He said that the individuals in the film were Wagner fighters who had perished in a single day. He asserted that the Russian Ministry of Defense had prevented his troops from obtaining ammunition and threatened to withdraw from the battle for Bakhmut.
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