About 21,000 PMC Wagner Mercenaries Killed in Ukraine

During the full-scale war with Russia, the defence forces of Ukraine have eliminated about 21,000 fighters of the Wagner private military company.

“The Wagner fighters were of two categories: professional mercenaries and those mobilised from prisons, their cannon fodder. Our troops killed 21,000 of them and wounded 80,000. These are colossal losses, but they give an idea of how numerous such groups are in eastern Ukraine,” President Volodymyr Zelensky told El Mundo in an interview.

According to him, the good news is that the Ukrainian defenders “destroyed the most motivated part of the Russian forces.”

Zelensky emphasised that Wagner fighters now go to Belarus and can pose threats there. Mercenaries can be used to form an offensive “fist” or subversive groups to operate on Polish borders.

As a reminder, in February of this year, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine recognised the private military company “Wagner” as an international criminal organisation.

In April, the European Union imposed sanctions on PMC Wagner, noting that it is responsible for supporting actions aimed at undermining Ukraine’s territorial integrity, sovereignty, and independence. Wagner fighters led the attacks on the Ukrainian cities of Soledar and Bakhmut.

In addition, the mercenaries of this Russian private military company were accused of committing crimes and atrocities in some countries in Africa and the Middle East. In particular, the presence of Wagner fighters was recorded in Syria, Libya, the Central African Republic, and Sudan.

This week, Russian president Vladimir Putin officially announced that the PMC Wagner was fully financed by the state: from May 2022 to May 2023; the company received more than RUB 86 billion from the Russian authorities. Previously, Putin repeatedly denied the state’s links with PMC Wagner.

Bohdan Marusyak