Wagner Group leader says more than 20,000 of his troops died in Bakhmut battle

The head of the Russian private army Wagner has once again broken with the Kremlin’s line in Ukraine, saying that the goal of demilitarizing the country has backfired, admitting that Russian forces have killed civilians and agreeing with Western estimates that they have lost more than 20,000 people in the war. Bakhmut.

Yevgeny Prigozhin said about half of those who died in the eastern Ukrainian city were Russian prisoners recruited for the 15-month war. The figures stand in stark contrast to Moscow’s widely disputed claim that just over 6,000 of its troops were killed in the fighting through January. By comparison, official Soviet troop losses in the 1979-89 Afghanistan war were 15,000.

Ukraine has not said how many of its soldiers have been killed since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in February 2022. White House officials said on Wednesday that Prigozhin’s comments were in line with his own estimate that Russian losses were accelerating.

The White House estimated this month that Russian forces have suffered 100,000 casualties, including 20,000 killed in action, since December. White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said about half of those killed were Wagner’s troops.

Analysts believe that many of those killed in the nine-month battle for Bakhmut were Russian prisoners with no military training.

Prigozhin – he is an ex-convict – has often criticized Russian military officials for not providing enough ammunition to their troops. He has also questioned his tactics, commitment and leadership capabilities, and complained that he has not given enough credit to his troops to succeed on the battlefield.

He highlighted the sacrifices made by his troops, and on Saturday announced what he claimed was the capture of the city of Bakhmut.

Question the reason for the war

In an interview published last Tuesday with Konstantin Dolgov, a pro-Kremlin political strategist, Prigozhin went further in his criticism – questioning some of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s reasons for war.

Prigozhin said Russia’s goal of “demilitarizing” Ukraine has backfired because Kyiv’s military has been strengthened with Western weapons and training.

While attacking Ukraine, Putin also mentioned the need to improve Russia’s security and prevent Ukraine from joining NATO. Since the war began, Ukraine has applied to join NATO, and cross-border attacks into Russia itself have increased.

In Washington, Kirby speculated Wednesday about Prigozhin’s motives.

“And maybe this is a morbid way for him to … claim credit for whatever he can achieve in Bakhmut, but also try to publicly embarrass the Ministry of Defense that the cost was borne in blood and treasure. by Wagner, and not by the Russian military. “

In the interview, Prigozhin also challenged Moscow’s staunch denials that Russian forces had killed civilians.

In what it said was a low estimate, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said that from February 2022 to early April 2023, there were 22,734 civilian casualties in Ukraine: 8,490 killed and 14,244 wounded.

Prigozhin, a wealthy businessman with long ties to Putin, is known for his bluster – often laced with obscenity – and before making unverifiable claims, he backed down.

He had previously threatened to give up the war for Bakhmut

Earlier this month, a media team released a video of him shouting, swearing and pointing at about 30 uniformed bodies on the ground, saying they were Wagner fighters killed in one day. He claimed that the Russian Ministry of Defense was starved of ammunition, and he threatened to give up the fight for Bakhmut.

Prigozhin has often been warned of the counteroffensive that Ukrainian officials have said they are planning, and in an interview on Tuesday, he said that, given continued Western support, Kyiv forces could successfully push Russian forces out of all the areas they occupy in the south and east of Ukraine. , also annexed Crimea.

“A pessimistic scenario: the Ukrainians are given missiles, they are preparing their forces, they will probably continue to attack, try to counter-attack,” he said. “They will attack Crimea, they will try to blow up the Crimean bridge (to the Russian mainland), cut off (our) supply lines. That’s why we have to prepare for a tough fight.”

Prigozhin’s admission of heavy losses seems to indicate the impact of Ukraine’s strategy.

Ukrainian officials say their goal in Bakhmut is to ease and reduce Russian forces, distract them from protecting occupied territory elsewhere, and buy time for more weapons and ammunition to arrive, and for training to be completed.

Pro-Kremlin media ignored the interview

Russia’s largest state and pro-Kremlin media did not report Prigozhin’s interview, posted on a Telegram channel with only 50,000 followers, so it is not widely seen in Russia. Nor was it mentioned by Russian military bloggers, whose popular Telegram pages are an important source of information about the war for many Russians.

On the battlefield, Ukraine’s General Staff said Wednesday that “heavy fighting” was continuing in Bakhmut, days after Russia claimed to have captured the devastated city. Bakhmut is located in Donetsk province, one of the four regions illegally annexed by Russia last fall and only partially controlled.

The head of Ukraine’s ground forces, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said Kyiv forces were “continuing defensive operations” in Bakhmut, with unspecified “successes” on the outskirts. He was not elaborate.

A Ukrainian commander in Bakhmut told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the Ukrainians were planning to trap Russia.

“Now we don’t need to fight in Bakhmut. We need to surround from the flanks and block,” said Yevhen Mezhevikin. “Then we have to ‘sweep’. This is more appropriate, and what we are doing now.”

Elsewhere, more attacks continued in border areas that Russian officials claimed had calmed down after one of the most serious attacks since the war began. Russian forces shot down “a large number” of drones in Russia’s southern Belgorod region, a local official said Wednesday, a day after Moscow announced that its forces had foiled a cross-border attack from Ukraine.

The drone was intercepted overnight, Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Telegram, and another was shot down Wednesday outside the regional capital, also called Belgorod. He said no one was injured, but property was damaged.

Ukrainian officials had no immediate comment.