Evgeny Prigozhin claims 10,000 Russian convicts died in Wagner Group’s Bakhmut operation

In an interview with the pro-Kremlin political consultant Konstantin Dolgov, Evgeny Prigozhin gave his estimate of Wagner Group’s casualties in the Bakhmut operation.

According to Prigozhin, the paramilitary organization had recruited a total of 50,000 convicts from Russian prisons. Wagner Group’s founder estimates that 20 percent of this total have been killed, and that the share of casualties among mercenaries recruited outside the penal system is similar.

Although Prigozhin didn’t give a specific casualty count, a 20-percent share of Wagner Group’s total personnel number implies 15,000–16,000 men killed. Statistically, another 15,000–16,000 wounded troops should be factored into the total number of casualties.

Prigozhin claims the Ukrainian military’s losses in Bakhmut are 50,000 troops killed and 50,000–70,000 wounded.

On May 21, U.S. President Joe Biden estimated that Russia’s casualties in Bakhmut were likely to be around 100,000 troops.