You will hear many conflicting reports from the front in Ukraine, both that Ukraine is winning and Russia is losing and the reverse. Here’s one from the pro-Ukraine side suggesting that the Russian private military contractor, Wagner Group, headed by Yevgeny Prigozhin, is about to collapse. The New Voice of Ukraine reports:
The founder, financier, and owner of Russia’s Wagner mercenary company, Yevgeny Prigozhin, has lost almost all his mercenaries in battles in Ukraine, spokesperson for Ukrainian Armed Forces’ Eastern Group Colonel Serhiy Cherevaty said in an interview with Radio NV on March 6.
Cherevaty said that the “Wagnerites” are coming to the end of playing an important role in the attempts to storm Bakhmut in Donetsk Oblast, because “they are already physically running out.”
Recently, Prigozhin, also known as “Putin’s chef”, said that if his soldiers leave Bakhmut, the Armed Forces of Ukraine will break the Russian front and reach Russia’s borders, and perhaps even further.
According to Cherevaty, this statement indicates an attempt by Prigozhin to intimidate and blackmail Russia’s leadership.
“I think this is just a good marker of the fact that, having lost almost all of his (mercenaries), trying to become some kind of military-political entity, he is actually approaching his (own) collapse, and therefore from all this boasting that he is the only one who can fight,” Cherevaty said.
“It was also useful for us, because he constantly humiliated the Russian Armed Forces.”
Heavy fighting for Bakhmut has been going on for more than half a year. According to Ukrainian Defense Ministry, every day the Russian Federation loses up to 500 soldiers killed and wounded trying to storm the city.
This is five times more than Ukrainian losses, according to assessments by NATO intelligence.
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