Russia’s Wagner mercenary group has suffered greater than 30,000 casualties since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine final February, with about 9,000 of these fighters killed in motion, the US has claimed.

The US estimates that 90 % of Wagner Group fighters killed in Ukraine since December 2022 had been convicts, White Home Nationwide Safety Council spokesperson John Kirby informed reporters at a daily briefing on Friday.

Half of the general deaths amongst Wagner mercenaries have occurred since mid-December, as preventing in Ukraine’s japanese metropolis of Bakhmut intensified, in line with US intelligence.

Kirby mentioned the mercenary group had made incremental good points in and round Bakhmut over the previous few days however these advances had taken many months to realize and got here at a “devastating price that isn’t sustainable”.

“It’s doable that they could find yourself being profitable in Bakhmut however it’ll show of no actual price to them as a result of it’s of no actual strategic worth,” he mentioned, including that Ukrainian forces would preserve robust defensive strains throughout the Donbas area.

Kirby informed reporters that Wagner continued to rely closely on convicts, who had been despatched to conflict with out coaching or gear, regardless of current feedback from Wagner’s founder Yevgeny Prigozhin that he had stopped recruiting Russian prisoners to combat in Ukraine.

The UK’s ministry of defence estimates Russian forces have possible suffered as much as roughly 200,000 casualties because the begin of their invasion of Ukraine.

“The excessive Russian casualty charge, particularly the excessive ratio of deaths to accidents, continues to have deleterious results on the Russian army’s fight effectiveness and is probably going prompting Russian officers to proceed crypto-mobilization efforts,” the Institute for the Research of Struggle, a Washington, DC-based assume tank, mentioned on Saturday.

Newest Defence Intelligence replace on the scenario in Ukraine – 17 February 2023

Discover out extra in regards to the UK authorities’s response: https://t.co/79EeudgP5j

🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/XHzsXcaPNB

— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) February 17, 2023

In the meantime, Wagner chief Prigozhin has claimed the settlement of Paraskoviivka north of Bakhmut was fully managed by his forces, the Russian company Interfax reported on Friday.

Russian army bloggers wrote that Paraskoviivka had been an necessary node of the Ukrainian defence strains. If the neighbouring villages of Verkhivka Berkhivka and Yahidne had been additionally captured, the Ukrainian troops in Bakhmut might not be provided from the north, the bloggers maintained.

There was no unbiased affirmation of the Wagner chief’s declare and the Ukrainian normal workers’s night report didn’t point out the advance on Friday.

The battle for Bakhmut has been raging for months.

Prigozhin additionally used the Paraskoviivka announcement to take a jab on the Russian Defence Ministry, saying the Wagner advance had succeeded regardless of an “ammunition blockade”. The preventing, he mentioned, had been attritional and bloody.

Earlier on Friday, the Ukrainian authorities urged all Bakhmut residents to flee as heavy preventing is anticipated to proceed.

“In case you are rational, law-abiding and patriotic residents, it is best to go away town instantly,” Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk mentioned in an enchantment on Friday to what’s believed to be the remaining few thousand individuals within the battered city. She made her feedback on a Telegram channel.

In line with the Ukrainian authorities, 5 civilians had been killed and 9 injured earlier on Friday. Town of as soon as 70,000 inhabitants within the Donetsk area now has about 6,000 civilians, Vereshchuk mentioned.

Many aged residents are holding out as a result of their houses are their solely possession and they don’t need to go away their birthplace. Some additionally sympathise with Russia.