Russia's Wagner Forced To Make Bakhmut "Tactical Pause" Due To Casualties

It's hard to keep attacking if you have no troops left to attack with. JL 

Thomas Newdick reports in The Drive:

Forces from Russia’s Wagner Group  may be taking a “tactical pause” as fighting continues around Bakhmut. Wagner have taken this action as it awaits much-needed reinforcements to arrive. The group has suffered major losses as the spearhead of the Russian push to take Bakhmut. Wagner forces will now take on a reduced role in Bakhmut, with Russia instead making more use of its regular soldiers. “The arrival of increased conventional Russian forces suggests Russian forces intend to offset the culmination of Wagner’s offensive with conventional troops,”

Forces from Russia’s Wagner Group private military company may be taking a “tactical pause” as fighting continues around the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, control of which has been fiercely contested for several months now. According to a U.S. research group and think tank, the Institute for the Study of War, or ISW, the Wagner Group may have taken this action as it awaits much-needed reinforcements to arrive. The group has suffered major losses as the spearhead of the Russian push to take Bakhmut — a city the strategic importance of which is widely disputed.

The ISW contends that Wagner forces will likely from now on take on a reduced role in the Bakhmut offensive, with Russia instead making more use of its regular soldiers, rather than the group’s mercenaries and controversial soldier conscripts.

“The arrival of an increased number of conventional Russian forces to the area may suggest that Russian forces intend to offset the possible culmination of Wagner’s offensive operations in Bakhmut with new conventional troops,” the ISW said in its daily update.

While Wagner has been at the forefront of the Bakhmut offensive, in recent weeks the group’s leader Yevgeny Prigozhin has been increasingly critical of the Kremlin’s decision-making in the conflict, expressing particular concern that the required troops and ammunition were simply not arriving in the area in the numbers needed.

Nevertheless, on Wednesday, Prigozhin said that Russian forces now fully control the eastern part of Bakhmut, a claim that’s still not been independently verified.

“In spite of the colossal resistance of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, we will go forward,” Prigozhin added today. “Despite the sticks in the wheels that are thrown at us at every step, we will overcome this together,” he said.

At the same time, Wagner is continuing efforts to expand its own ranks, including the recent opening of recruitment centers in 42 Russian cities, according to Prigozhin.

It seems that the Kremlin has also stepped up the supply of ammunition to the Bakhmut front, after Prigozhin today thanked the government for a “heroic” increase in the production of ammunition.

According to Reuters, the Wagner Group is now receiving ammunition produced this year, while Prigozhin spoke of ammunition now being produced “in huge quantities, which cover all the necessary needs.”

Prigozhin did, however, continue to warn that wider shortages of ammunition could still have an effect on the Wagner Group and regular forces alike. “I am worried about ammunition and shell shortages not only for the Wagner private military company but for all units of the Russian Army,” he said.

On the Ukrainian side, the authorities remain resolute in their plans to try and hold onto Bakhmut, at least for now. How realistic this is in the long term is unclear, however, with casualties now running as high as an estimated 100-200 a day. This still dwarfs claimed Russian losses, though, with Oleksiy Danilov, Ukraine’s national security chief, saying that one Ukrainian is killed for every seven Russians. Western officials have estimated total Russian casualties in Bakhmut at somewhere between 20,000 and 30,000.