Russian support for Wagner Group in Bakhmut "appears to be dwindling" – CNN
Fighters of the Wagner Group, a private military company financed by Yevgeny Prigozhin, appear to be losing the support of the Russian Armed Forces.
Source: CNN, citing Western officials
Quote from the Western officials: "Part of Wagner’s desperation, Prigozhin’s rather emotional outburst is because he sees himself as not only running out of human resource, but now he is also running out of Russian artillery support to provide an offset these losses."
Details: Death rates among Wagner fighters "have been significantly higher than of the Russian Armed Forces," they added.
Officials also said Bakhmut "doesn’t hold any operational strategic significance" for either Russia or Ukraine, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's trip to Bakhmut in December has politicised it.
They acknowledged that Russia had "taken territory," but said that the area they captured was "open ground" and not an urban or built-up area, and that there were no Ukrainian defensive lines there.
The Western officials said Ukrainian forces are surrounded by three sides but can still get forces in and out of Bakhmut.
Quote from the Western officials: "It may well last another month, or the Ukrainians could decide to leave within a week. They could withdraw to prepare defensive lines which they have to the west of Bakhmut."
"They have shown previously that they are very adept to withdrawing when they need to, or when they feel they need to."
Background:
- NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that the Ukrainian defence of Bakhmut may be defeated in the coming days, but this will not necessarily be a turning point in the war.
- Western intelligence estimates Russia's losses in recent months in the battles for the city of Bakhmut, Donetsk Oblast, at 20,000-30,000 mercenaries from the Wagner Group; about a third of them may be dead.
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