According to estimates by US intelligence services, more than 20,000 soldiers have been killed on the Russian side since December in fighting for the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut. About half of them are soldiers of the Russian mercenary group Wagner, said the communications director of the National Security Council, John Kirby, on Monday in Washington.
Most of these mercenaries were Russian convicts sent to war without adequate combat or combat training. The information cannot be independently verified.
The total number of soldiers killed and injured on the Russian side since December as a result of the fighting around Bakhmut is estimated by the intelligence services at more than 100,000, Kirby said. He did not provide information on the number of victims of the Ukrainian armed forces.
US Chief of Staff Mark Milley reported in November that more than 100,000 Russian soldiers had been killed or wounded in the first eight months of the war. The same probably applies to the Ukrainian side, he said in New York at the time. These numbers could not be independently verified.
After its invasion more than 14 months ago, Russia controls almost a fifth of Ukraine’s territory, including the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which was annexed in 2014.
The eastern town of Bakhmut has been attacked jointly by the Russian army and the Wagner troops for months. According to their own statements, the attackers now control around 85 percent of the city area.
Kirby said the strategic value of Russia recapturing Bakhmut was small and would not turn the tide of the war in Russia’s favour. “For Russia, these efforts, especially in Bakhmut, come at a very, very high price,” Kirby said. Russia’s stockpiles of weapons and troops are exhausted, but Ukraine’s defenses in the areas around Bakhmut remain strong. (dpa)
