In accordance with analysts, Wagner’s Russian mercenary group lost tens of thousands of its fighters – perhaps as much as half of its 50,000 strong – during months of bloody battles to capture the key Ukrainian city of Bakhmut.
War Research Institute think tank announced in its latest update on the war, which Western officials say the Wagner Group likely lost a “considerable” amount of manpower in a bid to curb Moscow’s offensive in the eastern region.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley announced on Wednesday that the Wagner Group has about 6,000 members. skilled staff and from 20 to 30 thousand. recruits, mostly convicts, fighting in the Bakhmut area.
In late December, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby estimated the size of Wagner’s force at 50,000 fighters, greater than three-quarters of whom were prisoners recruited from Russian prisons.
The mercenaries spent months attempting to capture Bakhmut, where the fighting was so fierce that it got here to be often called “the meat grinder”.
“Probably the difference between Kirby’s 50,000 in Ukraine and Milley’s 26,000 to 36,000 in the Bakhmut area is the results of casualties from Wagner’s devastating Bakhmut offensive,” ISW analysts concluded.
Ian Stubbs, senior military adviser to the British mission to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, said on Thursday that 30,000 Russian servicemen and Wagner personnel had been killed or wounded in the Bakhmut area since July.
“Stubbs stated that Russian and Wagner forces have suffered particularly heavy casualties in the Bachmut area in recent weeks and that they urgently need a resupply,” the ISW update reads.
“These manpower losses will proceed to limit Russian offensive operations in the Bakhmut area in addition to in the wider theater, and Wagner’s significant losses are more likely to jeopardize its ability to keep up an influential role amongst Russian forces fighting in Ukraine.”
Plainly this information of Western analysts was confirmed by the founding father of the Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, who on Wednesday publicly admitted that the fighting in Bakhmut had brought severe losses to each his forces and the Ukrainian side.
“Today’s battle for Bakhmut practically destroyed the Ukrainian army and unfortunately seriously damaged Wagner’s Private Military Company,” Prigozhin said in an audio message.
Despite regular territorial gains in street-by-street fighting in recent weeks, including the seizure of a metalworking plant in the city earlier this week, Moscow’s forces have yet to take full control of Bakhmut.
British military intelligence reported that the Ukrainians had successfully pushed the Russians off considered one of the city’s primary supply routes.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky earlier this month ordered more troops to defend the city to forestall the enemy from winning.
In an interview with the Associated Press this week, Zelensky argued that if Russia took Bakhmut, President Vladimir Putin would use the situation to create a global coalition that will force a ceasefire in Ukraine on his terms.
“If he smells some blood – he feels that we’re weak – he’ll push, push, push,” Zelensky said of Putin.