Under Bakhmut, up to 30,000 "Wagnerians" were liquidated, i.e. approximately one in three - inews
Western officials are convinced that Russia is running out of prisoners capable of joining the ranks of Wagner PMC.
According to inews, the "Wagner" PMC suffered from 20,000 to 30,000 casualties in the battles around Bakhmut, approximately every third mercenary was killed, Censor.NET reports.
Western officials are also seeing growing evidence that Russian conscripts are refusing to go into battle in other hot spots along the front line, including around Vuhledar, where hundreds of Russian soldiers are killed or wounded every day.
Western officials believe that the founder of Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, lacks not only ammunition, but also reinforcements since the number of men of suitable age in Russian prisons has significantly decreased - tens of thousands have already been sent to fight in Ukraine.
"The mortality rate of the Wagner was significantly higher than that of the Russian Armed Forces," said a Western official. "The Bakhmut was not a success for the Russians. They have been grinding for six months. What we are seeing is actually a terrible level of Russian losses for very minimal territorial gains", and the Russian army is really in a bad state."
The West believes that the Ukrainian counter-offensive will begin in the "coming weeks and months", when tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers will complete their training in Great Britain and other European countries.
