Inhumane and unscrupulous – secret service report reveals new information about Wagner group European Parliament denies information about controversial wine tour

It’s a cheeky word CNN uses to refer to the Russian Wagner group. From English it can be translated as “disposable infantry”. CNN today released information from a December 2022 Ukrainian intelligence report.

This shows new, hard-to-imagine details in connection with the Wagner group, which has surfaced frequently in recent weeks and has been deeply involved in the conquest of the city of Soledar.

Despite heavy losses, repeatedly suffered by the Wagner mercenaries, the sympathy of the Russian population seems limited, the report found.

Descriptions of Wagner’s war tactics are read brutally. If soldiers retreat from assault groups without orders or wounded, they are executed on the spot. A wiretapped phone call that CNN was able to overhear (but not independently verify) is about a Wagner soldier trying to surrender to the Ukrainians. “The Wagnerians got him and cut off his testicles.”

“Heaven on earth”

Also, wounded Wagner fighters often lay on the battlefield for hours. Friendly troops are not authorized to transport the wounded, their focus is to continue attacks. If such attacks fail, retreat is only allowed at night.

Wagner boss Prigoshin also shows his indifference to his own losses, but nevertheless Russian men don’t seem averse to working as Wagner mercenaries per se. In a telephone conversation intercepted by the Ukrainian secret service, a soldier described the Wagner group as “heaven on earth” compared to his unit.

Despite the heavy losses, the current actions of the Wagner group seem to be the only ones that make sense for the poorly trained soldiers who make up the majority of Russia’s ground forces. Often prisoners, tens of thousands were recruited by the Wagner group. They are used as the first attack wave before more experienced fighters move in. According to Ukrainian information, up to 80 percent of the soldiers die in the first waves.

Lack of agreement

Another tapped telephone conversation shows that there is little coordination between the Russian army and the Wagner mercenaries. There, a soldier tells his father that his unit accidentally shot down a vehicle belonging to the Wagner group.

The many deaths in his own ranks do not prevent Wagner boss Prigozhin from attributing much of Russia’s military successes to his soldiers. He describes the Russian army as incompetent and corrupt. When the Russian chief of staff remarked that the Wagner mercenaries should be better trained, Prigozhin replied: “War is the time for the active and courageous, and not for the clean-shaven.” (first)