The White House said on Friday that the Russian mercenary company Wagner Group has suffered more than 30,000 casualties since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, with nearly 9,000 of its fighters killed in action.
White House National Security Council (NSC) spokesman John Kirby told reporters at a regular briefing that the United States estimates that 90% of Wagner Group soldiers killed in Ukraine since December were criminals.
An NSC spokesman, citing recently downgraded intelligence, said half of the total deaths had occurred since mid-December as fighting intensified in the eastern Ukrainian town of Bakhmut. Kirby said the mercenary group has made inroads into and around Bakhmut over the past few days, but it took months to achieve them and at “catastrophic costs that are not sustainable.”