More than 40 thousand: Discussion

Against the backdrop of discussing the number of Russians in Bakhmut, the citizens of the aggressor country do not have to talk about any "positive effect" from the possible capture of the city, according to ISW. In his recent interview, the head of the Wagner PEC "Wagner" said that 10,000 "Wagnerists" were killed from convicted and as many personnel fighters of paramilitary formation.

Prigogine, in particular, noted that Wagner recruited 50,000 prisoners, 20 percent of which (10,000) died in the battles for the destroyed city. This information began to be dubbed in Russian pro-government Telegram channels. Thus, the overall focus of the audience's attention has shifted towards discussing the importance of Bakhmut's capture. The thoughts were expressed that the loss could be even greater.

According to analysts, Prigogine did not allow the Russian Defense Ministry to declare victory. In the future, reports of huge losses will be decisive in the context of discussions about the city in Donetsk region, analysts say. For his part, the former leader of pro-Russian fighters Igor Strelkov-Girkin suggested that the losses could be one and a half times higher than Prigogine states.

According to him, if 10 thousand were killed in Wagner PEC, and 26 thousand received pardons and returned to Russia, then another 14,000 were not taken into account. According to Girkin, much of them could also be killed. In total, Wagner could lose more than 40,000 in Bakhmut. Recall that NYT journalists believe that because of a lot of blood in Bakhmut, Russian troops have lost their ability to attack and now go to defense.