Wagner chief said the mercenary company suffered heavy casualties in Bakhmut.

Wagner fighters in Bakhmut. RT/Sputnik. 

The head of the Wagner Group, a Russian mercenary company, said that they lost 20,000 fighters during the battle of Bakhmut. New York Post. Yevgeny Prigozhin made the remarks and said that half of the dead were professional mercenaries while the other half were prison conscripts. Ukraine says that they are still contesting the city. 

RT has more information on the story. In addition to the deaths suffered in Bakhmut, Prigozhin said that 20% of his forces were also wounded. But he also said that Ukraine took massive casualties with 50,000 dead and another 50,000 to 70,000 wounded. 

My Comment:

This is another example of how dishonest the media is about Ukraine. The New York Post article had no information about how many casualties the Ukrainians took, which is fairly critical information. Russia suffered 20,000 deaths and more wounded but the claim is also that Ukraine suffered 50,000  dead and another 50 to 70,000 wounded. That paints a much different picture about the outcome of the battle than the one that the New York Post made. 

Of course just because Yevgeny Prigozhin made this claims that doesn't mean we have to believe them. He has reasons to lie about this that go beyond making Russia look good. Indeed, Prigozhin has been fairly critical of the war lately and has accused Russia of not trying to win. Some of that was deliberate disinformation, the idea that Russia was out of artillery was a trap that drew Ukraine into the trap that left them with heavy casualties.  

I tend to believe Prigozhin though. These numbers are embarrassing for all parties involved. Russia doesn't want to admit that Wagner was used as cannon fodder and took heavy casualties. Ukraine doesn't want to admit that they took even more heavy casualties. And it make sense that Russia would have taken dramatically less casualties than Ukraine did in this battle given the massive advantage in artillery that Russia had. 

This does show how cold Russia can be here. They used Wagner as cannon fodder for the most part, sending prisoners into conflict and it worked out. Losing 10,000 prisoners and 10,000 mercenaries is not a big deal for them. It's just like what they did during the battle of Mariupol, but this time mercenaries instead of Chechens. 

Still, if these numbers are true it does show how much of a victory it was for Russia. Not only did they lose very few of their own troops, they took out at least 50,000 Ukrainian troops, casualties that they can hardly afford. And many of the 50,000 to 70,000 wounded will not be coming back to the battlefield anytime soon, if at all. Plus all the equipment and weapons captured and destroyed.