Russia Forced To Replace Wagner Fighters After Most 'Units Were Destroyed' By Ukraine

Regular Russian military personnel have started to replace fighters of the Russian mercenary organization Wagner Group on the front lines of Ukraine's eastern Donetsk province, according to Ukrainian officials.

This change in the besieged city of Bakhmut was caused by the Wagner Group's losses, Ukraine's deputy defense minister Hanna Maliar said during a nationwide newscast.

"[M]ost of the Wagner units were destroyed by our Armed Forces," she said, according to a report by the Ukrainian news site Pravda.

The Wagner Group, which was estimated to have fielded 50,000 fighters in Ukraine at one point, has suffered 30,000 casualties since Russia began its invasion more than a year ago, White House National Security Council adviser John Kirby said on Feb. 17.

Around 9,000 of these casualties were killed in action, according to Kirby.

Despite the Wagner Group's reported casualty rate, the paramilitary organization's fighters are still motivated by their pay, Maliar said.

In contrast, regular Russian forces have supposedly become discouraged.

"After all, they do not understand why and for what interests they should die here," Maliar said, according to a translation of her statement provided by Ukrainian news outlet TSN.

The Wagner Group has gained prominence in recent months as its fighters mounted repeated assaults on Bakhmut and its surrounding settlements.

While the private military company has been able to gain ground in Ukraine as a result of its operations, it has also reportedly sustained heavy losses.

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a think tank based in the United States, speculated in late January that conventional Russian forces would end up replacing Wagner Group forces to maintain the offensive in Bakhmut.

Seized Russian military manuals also suggested that Russian forces have started to implement new assault tactics "to compensate for current combat power limitations in response to continued offensive failures," the ISW said in a more recent assessment of Russia's invasion.

Russia has lost a total of 149,890 personnel in the conflict, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said in its most recent casualty report released Wednesday.

Russian losses also included 3,395 tanks, 6,683 armored fighting vehicles and 2,393 artillery systems, among other pieces of military equipment.