Posted on 01/20/2023 12:34:23 PM PST by marcusmaximus
The mercenaries are a powerful force in the war and are driving Russia's offensive around Bakhmut. But mounting casualties mean recruitment in Russia's prisons is getting harder.
The graves are all fresh. Row after row of them, almost identical. The same mound of sandy soil, the same black, red and yellow wreath mounted with a golden star.
The same wooden, orthodox cross to mark the grave, though there are some Muslim headstones too. Just the names and the dates on a small bronze plaque to distinguish the lives extinguished. None of them lived to a ripe old age.
This is a cemetery for Wagner mercenaries near Krasnodar in southern Russia. Krasnodar region is the Wagner Group's heartland. Their training ground is nearby in a village called Molkino.
There is a newly built chapel not far away which houses the urns of cremated fighters. And there is space available for still more graves in this cemetery, when the next wave of bodies come home.
Wagner is heavily involved in Russia's offensive around Bakhmut and Soledar in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk region. Its fighters have died, Ukraine says, in their thousands.
Most likely the bulk of those were convicts, sent in to die like cannon fodder and be buried in a Wagner cemetery far from home. Perhaps after time in Russia's penal colonies they no longer had homes to speak of.
Russia claims to be in control of Soledar, a victory that Wagner's boss, Yevgeny Prigozhin, declares as his own.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.sky.com ...
🇺🇸🇷🇺⚔️🇺🇦🏃"United States advises Ukraine to withdraw its forces from Artemovsk (Bakhmut)," Agence France-Presse reports, citing a senior American official.— AZ 🛰🌏🌍🌎 (@AZgeopolitics) January 20, 2023
Sky is Comcast
NBC is Comcast
MSNBC is Comcast
this story runs contrary to the other news about Wagner’s forces slowly racking up victory after victory and taking control of the East. Even German intelligence is reporting Ukrainian losses in the three digits each day.
I know the US had their Blackwater days, but can you imagine relying on a mercenary force for your main warfighters.
This hadn’t been seen in a long time.
Cue up: Roland The Thompson Gunner.
Contrasts with what I know too. I won’t say where here, but first hand info.
Whatever you imagine the number to be, understand that Wagners do not collect their dead, and hundreds maybe thousands lie where they fell in no man’s land.
Those dead are just the ones that died of their wounds and those collected from ground taken.
There are only 2 undeniable truths when it comes to war.
1) You will NEVER be told the truth of what is going on by anyone involved.
2) Young men die
Don’t believe what Scott Ritter tells you.
Some day Russia will tire of losing 10s of thousands of men attacking layered, underground fortifications.
And they’ll start using tactical nukes to solve the problem.
That tweet deserves its own post/thread.
That’s always been the insane risk, one totally ignored by the incompetents in Washington
I’m waiting for it to hit the MSM sometime tonight.
The US government announced sanctions against Wagner today so I guess the media is marching in lockstep with negative reporting about Wagner.
“United States advises Ukraine to withdraw its forces from Artemovsk (Bakhmut),” Agence France-Presse reports, citing a senior American official.”
All I’ve seen in the past few weeks are towns in Ukraine getting quickly liberated by Russia.
Nope.
Has Prigozhin announced his candidacy for 2024?
Someone has to take over for Little Pukin.
Update on Russian military operations in Ukraine for January 20, 2023.
- BBC citing Ukrainian sources admit that Soledar is under Russian control and Bakhmut is facing encirclement;
- The West is increasing the amount of weapons sent to Ukraine including weapon systems entirely inappropriate for Ukrainian forces;
- The latest US military aid package falls far short of even sustaining Ukrainian operations and covering its losses;
- The package includes Stryker armored personnel carriers, adding yet another type of vehicle that needs a separate logistical line and training program for the APC role;
- The West is not sending this hodgepodge of equipment because it thinks it's the best option but instead because it is the only option.
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