Many Russian soldiers die in Bakhmut’s fight

The Russian and the mercenary Wagner group have allegedly lost tens of thousands of soldiers in Bakhmut even as Vladimir Putin’s forces continued to fight in the salt mining city, according to Independent news.

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) in a statement by the US chairman of the joint chief of staff General Mark Milley said that the Wagner has around 6,000 professional personnel and 20,000 to 30,000 recruits, mostly convicts, in Bakhmut.

However, this is lower than the number mentioned by the national security council spokesperson John Kirby in December where he said that the Wagner had 50,000 personnel in Ukraine including 10,000 contractors and 40,000 convict recruits.

“Likely, the difference between Kirby’s 50,000 figure in Ukraine and Milley’s 26,000 to 36,000 figure in the Bakhmut area is the result of casualties from Wagner’s attritional offensive on Bakhmut,” the ISW said.

Volodymyr Zelensky lauded Ukrainian strength faced against 400 days of Russia’s full-scale invasion in his nightly address.