Wagner Group troops have been reduced to becoming the disposable infantry of the Russian operation in eastern Ukraine, but a document from the Ukrainian military intelligence service that CNN was able to collect details on their effectiveness and fighting prowess around Bakhmut
Yevgeny Prigozhin, an oligarch who has been prominently featured on the front lines in recent weeks and who is constantly eager to take credit for Russian advancements, is the owner of Wagner, a private military contractor. Wagner fighters have done most of the work to take over Soledar, a town a few miles northeast of Bakhmut, and the areas around it.
Wagner poses a distinctive threat at close range, according to the Ukrainian assessment, which is dated December 2022, despite incurring tremendous losses. The paper claims that Russian society does not care about the deaths of thousands of Wagner soldiers.
“Assault groups don’t leave unless they’re told to… the penalty for an unauthorized departure or leaving without being hurt is execution on the spot.”
Phone intercepts gathered by a Ukrainian intelligence source and provided to CNN further support the notion of a ruthless approach to combat. In one, a soldier can be heard discussing another who attempted to turn himself in to the Ukrainians.
The soldier claims, “The Wagnerians caught him and cut his f**king balls out.”
According to the Ukrainian assessment, wounded Wagner combatants are frequently abandoned on the field of battle for hours. Since their primary duty is to carry out the attack until the objective is attained, assault troops are not permitted to remove the injured from the battlefield by themselves. Only at night is retreat permitted if the assault fails.
Wagner’s methods, despite Prigozhin’s callous disregard for deaths, “are the only ones that are effective for the poorly trained mobilized troops that constitute the majority of Russian ground forces,” according to Ukrainian research.
The passage says, “Assault units are proposed to replace the traditional battalion tactical groupings of the Russian Armed Forces.” This could mean that the Russian Army is changing its tactics to be more like Wagner.
That would be a big change from how the Russians usually work, which is to make bigger, more mechanized groups.
According to phone intercepts by Ukrainian intelligence, some mobilized troops are considering transferring to Wagner. One such intercept features a soldier saying, “It’s f**king heaven and earth,” in comparison to his unit and Wagner. Therefore, I had better f**king serve there if I was going to do so.
A fresh Rasputin?
Prigozhin is not short on ambition.He stated that Wagner was likely “the most experienced army in the world today” as he stood in Soledad last week.
He asserted that the army’s soldiers already possessed artillery, air defenses, and multiple rocket launchers.
Wagner and the top-down rigidity of the Russian military were also subtly contrasted by Prigozhin, who stated that “everyone who is on the ground is listened to.” PMCs (private military companies) are led by people who talk to both the commanders and the warriors.
This aerial photo was taken on National Unity Day, November 4, 2022, in Saint Petersburg. It shows the “PMC Wagner Center,” a building connected to Yevgeny Prigozhin, who started the Wagner private military company (PMC).
“For this reason, the Wagner PMC has advanced and will continue to advance.”
Two months ago, senior fellow Andrei Kolesnikov at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace compared Prigozhin’s rising power to Grigori Rasputin’s at Tsar Nicholas II’s court. According to him, Putin must have military effectiveness at any cost.
In a way, [Prigozhin’s] charm can compete with Putin’s because it is nasty and wicked. Putin now needs him in this position and configuration.
The resemblance to Rasputin, a mystic figure who treated the Tsar’s son for hemophilia, the bleeding illness, seems to have piqued Prigozhin’s interest. But he added his own customary spin on it in remarks this past weekend that were released by his firm, Concord.
Sadly, I cannot stop the flow of blood. I bleed for those who oppose our motherland. and not by spells but rather by making eye contact with them.
