High casualties and little help for the wounded: mercenaries from the Wagner Group unpacked about everyday life on the Ukraine front.
Above all, death lurks there.
Kiev/Bakhmut – Landmines, mortar shells and sniper fire: The fighting in the Ukraine war is currently raging particularly fiercely around the Bakhmut region.
Russia is currently trying to break through the front line with a massive deployment of soldiers.
Particularly in the fire are the mercenaries of the Wagner group, which is notorious for its brutal approach.
But the trench warfare demands a toll in blood.
Losses in the ranks of the private army are high.
In fact, the recruited mercenaries are fighting for survival.
At least two former fighters reported this in an interview with the US broadcaster CNN.
They were sent into battle with 90 men, the mercenary said, adding: "Sixty died in that first attack, killed by mortar fire.
A handful remained wounded.” Anyone who refuses to go into such combat will be shot – sometimes by their own commanders.
Heavy losses in the Ukraine war: mercenaries from the Wagner Group describe everyday wartime life at the front
The high losses in their own ranks are therefore accepted with approval.
The commanders of Wagner's private army, which was founded by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a man close to Putin, repeatedly send the attackers in the Ukraine war forward in several waves.
According to the insider report, the first fighters have to start running and dig in.
If they are unsuccessful, a second troop will be dispatched immediately.
If this also fails, the third one follows immediately.
Mercenaries pay a heavy toll in blood in the Russia-Ukraine war: ten out of seven died instantly
The fights go on for hours.
The terrain gains are manageable.
During one of these attacks in the Russia-Ukraine war, the "first steps into a forest were difficult because of the many landmines," the mercenary described the fighting and the high toll of blood.
"Out of ten men, seven were killed instantly."
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Known for his brutality in the Ukraine war: Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin.
© Libkos/Uncredit/dpa/Montage
The two interviewed mercenaries thus confirmed a report by Ukrainian soldiers who had already observed this Wagner tactic several times and compared the attackers to zombie armies.
The soldiers kept crawling out of the trenches, climbing over the corpses of their comrades and running on and on.
In the CNN interview, the two Wagner mercenaries justify their actions in the Ukraine war with an instinct for self-preservation.
“Some stop in the forest and drop their weapons.
But if you drop your guns, you get sniper fire and you die.” So you keep going, even if you get hurt.
"First, when you're wounded, you roll yourself away as best you can, to a neutral spot where there's no fire, and if there's no one around, give yourself first aid," said one of the fighters .
There is no evacuation by the comrades.
Russia's war of aggression in Ukraine: Wagner boss Prigozhin recruits his mercenaries in prison
These reports in the Ukraine war cannot be verified independently.
But the Wagner group is well known for its ruthlessness.
Until recently, Wagner boss Prigozhin recruited his fighters from prisons for Russia's war of aggression.
Freedom is said to wave after six months of service.
Pictures of the Ukraine war: great horror and small moments of happiness
Pictures of the Ukraine war: great horror and small moments of happiness
The men interviewed by CNN also found their way into Prigozhin's private army in this way.
According to their own statements, both are married, have children and were imprisoned in Russia.
One of them even got a 30-year sentence for manslaughter.
He still had ten years ahead of him, he told the US broadcaster.
The prospect of freedom after six months was just too tempting.
At the end of last year he was taken prisoner in Ukraine.
Now he is in prison there.
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List of rubrics: © Libkos/Uncredit/dpa/Montage
