russia’s Wagner PMC suffered 30,000 casualties in Ukraine, Biden administration believes

Since the beginning of russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the private military company "Wagner" has lost more than 30,000 mercenaries wounded and dead.

The US National Security Council spokesperson , John Kirby, announced it, CNN reports.

According to the spokesman, the "Wagner" PMC largely relies on convicted to fill its ranks. However, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Wanger Group financier, claimed to have stopped recruiting imprisoned.

"They ("Wagner" – edit.) treat their new recruits, mostly convicted, like a cannon fodder, throwing them, literally, in a meat grinder…

He (Prigozhin – edit.) simply freed them from their prisons and threw them to fight with no training, equipment, or proper command, just threw them on a battlefield", Kirby reported.

The Biden's administration spokesperson noted that 9,000 mercenaries had been killed, and about half of these 9,000 had been eliminated  since mid-December.

He emphasized that around 90% of killed in December were recruited from Russian prisons.

Kirby said that "Wanger" PMC has suffered heavy casualties in fierce battles for Bakhmut in the Donetsk region.

The russian federation had made "gradual gains" in and around Bakhmut, the spokesman noted. At the same time the US stay unsure of  russia's capability of breaking into the city.

Even if it does, Kirby said the city holds "no real strategic value" because the US believes Ukraine would maintain its strong defensive lines across the broader Donbas region.

As Rubryka reported, the russians are very unlikely to achieve operationally decisive successes in their current and likely upcoming offensive operations, although they are likely to make tactically and possibly even operationally significant gains.