Wagner Group loses over 30,000 of its troops in Ukraine

The Wagner Private Military Company (PMC) has lost more than 30,000 mercenaries wounded and killed since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Source: John Kirby, Coordinator for Strategic Communications at the National Security Council in the White House, cited by CNN

Details: As Kirby states, out of over 30,000 Wagnerites, roughly 9,000 have been killed, and about half of those 9,000 have been killed since mid-December.

He emphasised that about 90% of the Wagnerites who were killed in December had been recruited in Russian prisons.

According to Kirby, the Wagner PMC relies significantly on convicts to replenish its ranks, despite Yevgeny Prigozhin's statements regarding the stop of recruitment in prisons.

Quote: "They're [Wagner PMC] treating their recruits, largely convicts, as basically cannon fodder, throwing them into a literal meat grinder here, inhuman ways without a second thought…

"Men [Prigozhin] that he just plucked out of prisons and threw on the battlefield with no training, no equipping, no organizational command, just throw them into the fight."

More details: Kirby stated that Wagner has recently suffered major casualties in the fierce battle for Bakhmut.

As he states, Russia has made "incremental gains" in and around Bakhmut after the fighting intensified over the past few days. At the same time, he noted, the United States cannot predict whether Russia will succeed in breaking through to the city.

However, even if this happens, Kirby added, Bakhmut has "no real strategic value," and therefore the United States believes that Ukraine will maintain its strong defensive lines in Donbas.

Background: According to BBC estimates, the number of Russian soldiers who were killed in the war in Ukraine has increased sharply since the beginning of February.

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