Wagner Group warlord Yevheni Prigozhin has released a video reassuring his soldiers and supporters that “there are no problems” at the cemetery dedicated to Wagner personnel and telling them that “any war leads to the fact that fighters die.”
In the macabre video, the chef turned mercenary leader stands before a field of fresh graves that runs over the horizon, and promises that the cemetery will be turned into “a memorial for future generations.”
In late February, US intel estimated Wagner’s casualties in Ukraine as over 30,000 with more than half those at Bakhmut. The figure is likely to have significantly climbed during the brutal battles there over the last month, including the use of ex-convicts in ‘suicide squad’ tactics. Individual soldiers are reported to receive $1,300 (USD) per month as part of Wagner, which is well in excess of average Russian monthly earnings.
Last Sunday, a pro-Putin activist, Vladlen Tatarsky, was assassinated in a St Petersburg café owned by Prigozhin. Responsibility for the deadly bombing has been taken by the anti-Putin National Republican Army (NRA) of Russia. Kyiv Post was tipped off about the killing by an NRA spokesperson on the day before.
Prigozhin concluded his comments from the graveyard by saying: “Yes, it is growing. Those who fight sometimes die. That’s how life works.”
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