Wagner Group tactics in Ukraine: Defence Intelligence report revealed

CNN journalists have received Ukraine’s Defence Intelligence data on the combat tactics of the Wagner Group private military company in Ukraine, according to which their effectiveness around Bakhmut is confirmed and the difficulty of confronting Russian militants is indicated.

Source: CNN

Quote: "The Ukrainian report dated December 2022 concludes that Wagner represents a unique threat at close quarters, even while suffering extraordinary casualties." 

Details: "The deaths of thousands of Wagner soldiers do not matter to Russian society", the report asserts, while at the same time indicating that Wagner Group fighters have become the disposable infantry of the Russian offensive in eastern Ukraine.

"Assault groups do not withdraw without a command… Unauthorised withdrawal of a team or without being wounded is punishable by execution on the spot," stated in a Defence Intelligence document.

Phone intercepts also indicate a merciless attitude on the battlefield. In one, a soldier is heard talking about another who tried to surrender to the Ukrainians. "The Wagnerians caught him and cut his f**king balls off," the soldier says.

It is noted that the wounded Wagner fighters are often left on the battlefield for hours. "Assault infantry is not allowed to carry the wounded off the battlefield on their own, as their main task is to continue the assault until the goal is achieved. If the assault fails, retreat is also allowed only at night," states Ukraine’s Intelligence.

Despite a brutal indifference to casualties, demonstrated by Prigozhin himself, the Ukrainian analysis says that Wagner’s tactics "are the only ones that are effective for the poorly trained mobilised troops that make up the majority of Russian ground forces".

It is assumed that the Russian army may even be adapting its tactics to become more like Wagner. "Instead of the classic battalion tactical groups of the Russian Armed Forces, assault units are proposed," says Ukraine’s Defence Intelligence.

That would be a significant change from the Russians’ traditional reliance on big mechanised units.

The Ukrainian report says that Wagner deploys its forces in mobile groups of about a dozen or fewer, using rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) and exploiting real-time drone intelligence, which the report describes as the "key element."

Another tool that Wagner soldiers have, according to the document, is the use of Motorola communications equipment. Although the company itself told CNN that it has suspended all sales to Russia and closed its operations there.

Convicts, tens of thousands of whom Wagner has recruited, frequently form the first wave of an attack and take the heaviest casualties, with as many as 80% of them being killed, according to Ukrainian officials.

More experienced fighters, with thermal imagery and night-vision equipment, should follow them.

If Wagner forces succeed in taking a position, artillery support allows them to dig trenches and consolidate their gains, but those trenches are very vulnerable to attack in open land. 

However, according to Ukrainian intercepts, coordination between Wagner and the Russian military is often lacking. 

It is also reported that until the Russian Ministry of Defence achieves the desired result in the war, Prigozhin will be on his toes and demand more resources for Wagner.

The group also appears to be able to gain weapons by other means. US officials said last week that Wagner had sourced arms from North Korea. "Last month, North Korea delivered infantry rockets and missiles into Russia for use by Wagner," National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said.

Prigozhin is not short on ambition. As he stood in Soledar last week, he declared that Wagner was probably "the most experienced army in the world today".

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