Because of the huge losses?
- Reports speak of “Wagner” incurring heavy losses in the fighting that has been going on for several months in the vicinity of Bakhmut, a city in the Ukrainian Donbass, which has become a battlefront with the Kiev army.
- The head of the group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, himself admitted that many of his fighters died there.
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The White House said that the Wagner Group had suffered losses of more than 30,000 people during the fighting in Ukraine.
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White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said that the United States estimates that 90 percent of the “Wagner” members killed in Ukraine since last December are convicted prisoners, according to Reuters.
- For more than six months, the “Wagner” group and the Russian army have been trying to control Bakhmut, a city of limited strategic importance, but it has gained great symbolic importance due to the long duration of the battles around it.
From gyms to battlefields
- Earlier in March, Prigozhin announced the opening of 58 recruitment centers in 42 Russian cities.
- Prigozhin has recently started opening centers in gyms to attract potential recruits.
- “In 42 cities of the Russian Federation, recruitment centers have been opened for Wagner. New fighters are coming there, they will accompany us to defend their country and their families,” Prigozhin said in a statement issued by his media office.
- Attached to his letter was a list of such recruitment centres, most of which appeared to be opened in gyms and martial arts clubs.
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