Tag: wagner
Fearsome Russian Wagner mercenaries to be labelled terror group like Isis and Al Qaeda
Putin loses 100,000 soldiers in just five months in failed siege of Bakhmut, says US – as Wagner chief hints at retreat
RUSSIA has suffered more than 100,000 casualties in the bloody battle for Bakhmut in the last five months, the White House says.
US intelligence estimates say 20,000 Russian troops have been killed and another 80,000 wounded trying to take the small eastern Ukrainian city that’s seen the fiercest fighting of the war so far.
The smouldering remains of a bombarded and battered Bakhmut[/caption]
Moscow has been fighting a grinding war of attrition in Bakhmut but Ukraine has held on to the small eastern city[/caption]
The US estimates Russia has suffered 100,000 losses, including dead and wounded, in only five months in the small city[/caption]
Ukranian soldiers have been bravely defending Ukraine’s bloodiest frontline[/caption]
In the battered and besieged city in the Donetsk region, which only has a few thousand brave residents left, Russia has been trying to break the stale-mate in a gruelling and heavy-casualty war of attrition.
Yet, Ukraine has held on to the city for dear life and managed to stave off encirclement by a Russian onslaught backed by Wagner mercenaries.
National Security Adviser John Kirby said: “We estimate that Russia has suffered more than 100,000 casualties, including over 20,000 killed in action.
“Russia’s attempt at an offensive in the Donbass, largely through Bakhmut, has failed… Russia has been unable to seize any really strategically significant territory.”
Kirby, citing newly declassified US intelligence, said that about half of those killed were Wagner militia soldiers, which draws much of its ranks from prison populations in Russia.
The US estimates account for losses since the start of December, but the battle for the city has been waging for over nine months.
Kirby continued: “This attempted effort, particularly in Bakhmut, has come at a terribly, terribly high cost. Russia has exhausted its military stockpiles and its armed forces.”
Ukrainian soldiers have previously described the fighting in Bakhmut as a hellscape of World War One-style slaughter as Wagner’s largely convict army was thrown into the “meat grinder” and used as “cannon fodder“.
The fighting has become even more intense in recent months as Bakhmut remains the key battle of the war for Putin.
Yet, even Wagner’s brutal chief Yevgeny Prigozhin has threatened to withdraw his fighters from the city in a move that reflects the growing discontent within Putin’s faltering army.
The warlord pinned Russia’s “unjustified” losses in Bakhmut, which are five times higher than across the rest of Ukraine, on the Kremlin’s failure to provide ample ammunition in a live broadcast.
“It would have been five times fewer if we had more ammunition,” said Prigozhin, accusing Russian soldiers of not providing his men with the necessary equipment.
“Are we going to remain here or not,” asked Prigozhin, before vowing: “We are going to attack Bakhmut to our last bullet, but these munitions are not even enough for a week, mere days.
“And so if the munitions deficit is not addressed we will be required…not to run like cowardly rats [but] to either retreat, or remain to die.”
Kirby did not give estimates of Ukrainian casualties in Bakhmut, stating the reason was because “they are the victims here. Russia is the aggressor.”
The White House, he said, will not put “information in the public domain that makes it any harder” for the close Western ally whose army is being armed and trained by a US-led coalition of countries.
Heroic Ukrainian defenders have held out against relentless waves of attacks for months.
They now control only part of the city, including the vital last supply route to the city known as the “road of life”.
Serhiy Cherevatyi, a spokesperson for Ukrainian troops in the east said the defending troops “have not allowed the Russians to cut off our logistics”.
Warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin near the graves of fallen Wagner mercenaries many of which have been killed in Bakhmut[/caption]
Ukrainian troops have described the ‘hell’ of fighting in Bakhmut, where the life expectancy can be as low as four hours[/caption]
Make Vladimir Putin’s Wagner Group warlords a banned terror organisation, demands Labour
VLADIMIR Putin’s warlords — the Wagner Group — should be a banned terror organisation, the Labour Party is demanding.
The band of mercenaries is often described as the Russian president’s private death squad and is accused of slaughtering civilians in Ukraine.
Known for recruiting Nazi thugs and criminals, it acts outside the law and has been fighting in Ukraine since 2014.
But the Russian ministry of defence supplies the group with weapons.
If the UK made it a banned terror group, then it would become a crime to belong to the group, back it or carry its logo publicly.
The call comes after the world marked the first anniversary of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “The Wagner Group is responsible for the appalling atrocities in Ukraine and across the world.
“No one in the UK should be allowed to belong to the group, support it or promote it.
“One year on from Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, we need to hold those responsible for supporting its barbaric agenda to account.”
The US banned the group last month.
I fought brutal Wagner troops for 10 hours at a time – they came in waves like zombies, says Ukrainian soldier
GUNNING down Russian mercenaries on Ukraine’s savage frontline is like a “zombie movie”, a battle-hardened soldier has revealed.
Ten hours of constant firing at “uninterrupted” floods of Wagner Group operatives leave Ukrainian AK47s so hot soldiers get burnt, he adds.
Andriy likened frontline combat against the Wagner Group to a ‘zombie movie’[/caption]
Putin’s guns-for-hire private army is a twisted cocktail of rapist prisoners mixed in with elite units[/caption]
Andriy, a soldier fighting near the eastern city of Bakhmut, told how one attack simply “didn’t stop coming”.
Speaking from a frontline bunker, he told CNN: “They’re climbing above the corpse of their friends, stepping on them.”
The relentless droves of conscript prisoners charging into battle a few weeks ago left a Ukrainian machine gunner “almost getting crazy”.
He claimed it was because once shot, men from Putin’s private army would simply not go down.
Some believe violent convicts thrown forward in the first waves of Wagner attacks are being pumped with drugs to keep them on their feet.
Such assaults have seen up to “200” Russians storm towards units of just 30 Ukrainian troops.
Andriy blasted the conscripts as “just meat” who dig in once they’ve made around 30 metres of ground.
This allows Wagner’s elite units to follow up from behind, repeating the process over and over.
Wagner Group, which has around 50,000 men, first appeared in Eastern Ukraine in 2014 when Putin began backing Russian separatists in the Donbas region.
The private paramilitary, that has since cropped up in conflicts in Syria and across Africa, was formed by Putin crony Yevgeny Prigozhin.
Nicknamed “Putin’s chef”, Prigozhin recently boasted of turning rapist convicts into “real cannibals” to fight in Ukraine.
Although it is not clear what the oligarch means by “real cannibals,” an actual cannibal has joined the Russian mercenaries.
The twisted propaganda video filmed at a training camp in Krasnodar, Russia, was similar to one where Prigozhin speaks to hundreds at a high-security penal colony in Mordovia.
Attempting to hire them as recruits, he goes onto say they must blow themselves up with grenades if captured by Ukrainians.
Murderers and sex offenders from some of Russia‘s most notorious prison camps are among the volunteers signing up for Putin‘s doomed war in Ukraine.
The prisoners are told they will be offered their freedom and a personal pardon from Putin if they last six months at the frontline in Ukraine.
Row upon row of killed-in-action Wagner Group mercenaries – branded as ‘just meat’ by soldier Andriy – lie in a hastily dug cemetery in Krasnodar, Russia[/caption]
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Ex-Huddersfield boss David Wagner looking for manager’s job in Spain after turning down former club and Wigan
DAVID WAGNER is keen on a job in Spain after turning down roles in England.
The ex-Huddersfield boss was linked with his old club and Wigan, but fancies Spain now after leaving Young Boys.
The German, 51, has also previously been linked with West Brom.
He launched his managerial career with Borussia Dortmund reserves.
And when Huddersfield took a chance on him in 2015 he rewarded them with the most famous season in their modern history two years later.
The Terriers went up to the Premier League for the first time ever.
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Huddersfield stayed up the next term but he departed in 2019 when they were bottom of the Prem.
Next came 16 troubled months with home country club Schalke after being handed a three-year contract.
Schalke set a new club record of 16 winless matches in the second half of the 2019-20 season.
Two shocking defeats to take the run to 18 at the start of the following campaign then led to his sacking.
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Bayern Munich beat Schalke 8-0 and Werder Bremen triumphed 3-1.
Wagner took over at Young Boys in the summer of 2021.
He guided them to a 2-1 home victory over Manchester United in a Champions League group game.
But failure to earn Young Boys a fourth league title in a row cost him his job in March this year and he hasn’t worked since.