INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
were no longer fighting at the front, replaced by a mix of paratroopers and inexperienced regular troops
The number of professional troops Prigozhin had fighting in Ukraine has never been clear and could be lower than the 25,000 often estimated
Bloated by the recruitment of prison convicts over the winter, the Wagner force has shrunk back toward its original core of professional
Michael Kofman, a specialist on the Russian military at CNA, a Washington think tank, has estimated that Prigozhin probably had closer to
15,000 of his permanent troops fighting in Ukraine.Relentless attackAnd while Wagner played an important role in the war over the winter,
that was limited to a relentless attack on Ukrainian defenses in and around the eastern city of Bakhmut, a small section of the roughly
1,000 kilometer (620 mile) front line
Institute, said in a Monday podcast for the military affairs website, War on the Rocks
as soon as Prigozhin declared the town captured in May
bloggers.President Vladimir Putin made it clear in his televised remarks on Monday night that the government is keen to persuade as many
next week, when a July 1 deadline for signing up with the Russian Defense Ministry expires
symptom of much wider problems in the Russian army, rather than a solution to them, according to a person close to the Russian Defense
possibilities ranging from a collapse of morale among Russian forces in Ukraine, to a new round of mobilization by Putin as he seeks to
Upside for KyivBut there are potential positives for Kyiv
Institute for the Study of War, a Washington think tank that maps and chronicles the fighting
in its June 25 assessment of the war
