To support the offensive on Bakhmut: Russian Federation replaces exhausted Wagner soldiers with paratroopers
The Russian command is likely replacing the exhausted forces of the private military company Wagner with regular Russian units to support the offensive on Bakhmut, the Donetsk region.
This was reported in a report by experts from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
ISW experts claim that the Russian airborne forces are resuming their offensive near this settlement.
The analysts concluded after seeing a Russian 4M airborne combat vehicle in the footage posted online.
This is a special mechanized vehicle used exclusively by Russian paratroopers, ISW emphasizes.
– Since the beginning of January 2023, the Russian Ministry of Defense has increasingly reported that Russian airborne forces are operating in the Bakhmut area.
This indicates that conventional Russian forces in this settlement area are increasing, if not replacing the Wagner PMC forces at all, – ISW notes.
Experts recalled that on January 5, a US official, on condition of anonymity, reported that in late November and early December, more than 1,000 mercenaries of the Wagner PMC, including Russian convicts, died near Bakhmut.
He said that since the fall, more than 4,100 Wagnerites had been killed and 10,000 wounded near Bakhmut.
– According to our estimates, the Russian army command is redeploying conventional units to the Bakhmut area to continue the fight as the offensive of Wagner’s PMC forces has reached its climax.
Thus, Russia’s larger-scale efforts against Bakhmut are probably not over,” the Institute of War Studies experts say.
The full-scale war in Ukraine has been going on for 340 days.
Follow the situation in the cities on the interactive war map in Ukraine.
For more information about the war in Ukraine, read the online news in the ICTV Fakty material.