The Wagner mercenary group of Russian businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin has been weakened by the fighting around the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, according to Western experts.
The mercenaries are now almost incapable of making any new attacks outside the city due to high attrition, the US Institute for the Study of War (ISW) in Washington said.
At the same time, the military analysts assume that Bakhhmut is largely controlled by Russian troops. Ukrainian forces, on the other hand, launched counterattacks in the north and south of Bakhmut and control connecting routes around the city.
Wagner chief Prigozhin declared the complete capture of Bakhmut at the weekend, announcing that he would withdraw from the city and hand it over to regular Russian forces on May 25.
According to the Ukrainian military, however, a withdrawal of the Wagner fighters will not be easy because Kiev's forces positioned around Bakhmut threaten the Wagner troops with encirclement. The extremely bloody fighting around the town, which once had 70,000 inhabitants, has been going on since late summer.
According to ISW experts, the Russian troops may need more reinforcements to hold the ruined city and protect its flanks. This would also prevent the Russians from advancing - as they have planned - in the west towards Kostyantynivka and in the north towards Soledar.
