These new initiatives are unlikely to make up for the losses they are experiencing, nor respond to the challenges of maintaining the scale or intensity of Wagner operations in Ukraine. One wonders if these schoolchildren know that about half of the prisoners Wagner has already deployed in Ukraine have likely become casualties. In recent days, masked Wagner recruiters have even given career talks in Moscow high schools, distributing questionnaires entitled “application of a young warrior” to collect the contact details of interested pupils.
Earlier this month, Wagner set up outreach teams based in sports centres in at least 40 locations across Russia. In the face of these losses, Wagner Group owner Yevgeny Prigozhin is finding it increasingly difficult to resupply what he has termed the “meat grinder” in eastern Ukraine. That is over 800 Russian personnel killed or wounded for each kilometre gained, the vast majority of them Wagner fighters. Since May last year, between 20 – 30,000 Wagner and regular Russian forces have been killed and wounded in the area around Bakhmut alone – a huge loss of human life for a total territorial advance of approximately just 25km. Russia is suffering extremely heavy casualty rates. Over the past week, we have seen intensive combat as Russia continues its grinding offensive in the Donbas.
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