Wagner commander says more than 22,000 militants have died in Ukraine

A Wagner commander revealed that the group recorded more than 22,000 gunmen killed and more than 40,000 wounded in the campaign in Ukraine.

"As of May 20, a total of 25,000 members are alive and well. Of these, 15,000 are on vacation and 10,000 fighters are present in Belarus," the commander of the Russian private military corporation Wagner, nicknamed Marx, said on July 20.

Marx added that 22,000 people were killed and more than 40,000 others were wounded during the fighting in Ukraine. This suggests that Wagner has deployed some 78,000 fighters in Russia's campaign in Ukraine.

The Russian Defense Ministry and Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin have not commented on the information.

Wagner members took part in the Bakhmut offensive in January. Photo: RIA Novosti

Prigozhin claimed in late May that the Wagner group had lost 20,000 fighters in the 10-month battle for the city of Bakhmut, half of them former prisoners.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in late June that his country's forces had "destroyed 21,000 Wagner members and wounded about 80,000".

The battle for Bakhmut is considered the most intense and prolonged since the Russia-Ukraine conflict broke out in February 2022, when both sides focused their forces on the city in Donetsk province. Wagner fighters played a leading role here and declared full control of Bakhmut on May 20, then handed over the battlefield to the Russian Defense Ministry and withdrew to the rear.

Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin's media agency posted a video on July 19 of him welcoming his forces to Belarus. Prigozhin told the fighters that they were now stopping their involvement in the war in Ukraine, would stay in Belarus for a while and gather strength for a "new journey to Africa."

Vu Anh (According to Newsweek )

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