Sunday | July 2, 2023
At least 21,000 Wagner mercenaries have been killed fighting in Ukraine, according to President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The private military organization, notably in eastern Ukraine where its “most powerful group” was engaged in combat, has incurred “enormous losses,” according to the Ukrainian president.
Zelensky told reporters in Kyiv on Saturday that “our troops killed 21,000 Wagnerites in eastern Ukraine alone,” and that a further 80,000 Wagner fighters had been injured.
According to Zelensky, who described the Wagner PMC’s warriors as a “motivated staff of the Russian army” and primarily prisoners who “had nothing to lose,” these were significant losses for the Wagner PMC.
The assertion by Zelensky, made during a news conference with Spanish journalists to coincide with a visit to Kyiv by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, could not be independently verified by CNN.
Sanchez is on his third trip to Ukraine. It follows news that CIA Director William Burns recently visited Ukraine to meet with Zelensky and Ukrainian intelligence officials, as well as the announcement that Spain will assume the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union.
Zelensky’s allegations regarding Wagner’s losses came barely one week after Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the private military organization, led his soldiers in an unsuccessful uprising against Moscow.
Before a settlement mediated by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko defused the issue, Wagner troops had marched toward the Russian capital and had taken control of military facilities in two Russian cities in what Prigozhin claimed was a response to a Russian military attack on a Wagner camp.
The contract negotiated by Lukashenko requires Prigozhin to relocate to Belarus, and his fighters are given the choice of joining the Russian military or law enforcement agencies, returning to their family and friends, or moving to Belarus. As a result, the future of the Wagner Group is currently uncertain.
In his speech on Saturday, Zelensky said that Prigozhin’s uprising had “greatly affected Russian power on the battlefield” and may help Ukraine’s counteroffensive.
Zelensky declared, “We must exploit this circumstance to drive the enemy from our land.
The conflict is going against them. They have failed to win any battles in Ukraine, so they are now looking for someone to blame, the speaker stated.
He asserted that the counteroffensive would not, however, be hurried since he valued human life and had to be wise about where he deployed forces.
Every kilometer every meter cost lives. The field is mined all the way down, but you can move fairly quickly,” he remarked. People are our greatest asset. We take great care as a result.
Zelensky highlighted concerns about losing American support from both parties during the conference on Saturday as a result of “dangerous messages coming from some Republicans.”
Mike Pence has come to see us, and he is a Republican who first and foremost supports Ukraine, according to Zelensky.
“We have the support of both parties, but there are conflicting messages about our support for Ukraine in their circles. Some Republicans are sending out potentially harmful messages that there might be less support.
The most crucial thing for Ukraine is to maintain support from both parties, he continued.
Zelensky said, in response to a question about whether he was in danger and worried for his life, “It is more hazardous for Putin than for me, honestly. They only want to murder me in Russia, whereas the entire world wants to kill him.