Intelligence Report Reveals Brutal Tactics of Wagner Paramilitary Group in Ukraine

Fighters from the Wagner Group became expendable infantry in the Russian offensive in eastern Ukraine, but a Ukrainian military intelligence document obtained by CNN exposes how effective they have been in the city of Bakhmut and how difficult it is to fight them.

The Wagner Group (GR) is a private paramilitary organization contracted by the Russian government to fight the war and run by oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin, who has been highly visible on the front lines in recent weeks, always quick to take credit for Russian advances. GR fighters were heavily involved in taking Soledar, a few kilometers northeast of Bakhmut, and areas close to the city.

The Ukrainian report – dated December 2022 – concludes that the GR poses a unique melee threat, even if it suffers extraordinary casualties. “The deaths of thousands of Wagner’s soldiers do not matter to Russian society,” the report states.

“Strike groups do not withdraw without order… Unauthorized withdrawal of a team or without injuries is punishable by execution on the spot.”

Eavesdropped by a Ukrainian intelligence source and shared with the CNN also indicate a ruthless attitude on the battlefield. In one of them, a soldier is heard talking about another who tried to surrender to the Ukrainians.

“The Wagnerians got him and cut his f**king balls off,” says the soldier.

THE CNN cannot independently authenticate the call, which allegedly took place in November.

Wounded GR fighters are often left on the battlefield for hours, according to the Ukrainian assessment. “Assault infantry are not allowed to take the wounded from the battlefield on their own, as their main task is to continue the assault until the objective is achieved. If the assault fails, withdrawal is also allowed only at night.”

Despite Prigozhin’s brutal indifference to casualties, the Ukrainian analysis states that the GR’s tactics “are the only effective ones for the poorly trained deployed troops that make up the majority of Russian ground forces.”

He suggests that the Russian military may even be adapting its tactics to more closely resemble the GR, saying: “Instead of the classic battalion tactical groups of the Russian Armed Forces, assault units are proposed.”

This would be a significant change from Russia’s traditional reliance on larger mechanized units.

On the ground, according to eavesdropping from Ukrainian intelligence services, some mobilized troops are thinking of moving to the GR. In one of these intercepts, a soldier compares the GR to his unit and says, “It’s fucking heaven and earth. So if I’m going to serve, I better serve there.”

The “Wagnerian” way of waging war

The Ukrainian report says the GR deploys its forces in mobile groups of 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 available to the GR military is the use of communication equipment manufactured by Motorola, according to the document.

Motorola told the CNN which suspended all sales to Russia and ended its operations there.

Convicts – tens of thousands of whom were recruited by the GR – often form the first wave in an attack and suffer the highest casualties – up to 80%, according to Ukrainian officials.

They are followed by more experienced fighters with thermography equipment and night vision.

For the Ukrainians, their own drone intelligence is essential to prevent their trenches from being overwhelmed by grenade attacks. The document recounts an incident in December in which a drone spotted an advancing GR group, allowing the Ukrainian defenses to eliminate it before its troops could fire RPGs.

If GR forces manage to get into position, artillery support allows them to dig trenches and consolidate their advances, but these trenches are highly vulnerable to open attack. And again – according to Ukrainian intercepts – coordination between the GR and the Russian military is often poor. On an intercepted call – again unverifiable – a soldier told his father that his unit had mistakenly shot down a GR vehicle.

Prigozhin has repeatedly insisted his fighters were responsible for seizing the town of Soledar and nearby settlements last week, the first Russian military gains in months. “No unit other than the PMC [empresa militar privada] from the GR participated in the attack on Soledar,” he said.

The GR’s performance is Prigozhin’s way of getting more resources and is decisive in his ongoing battle with the Russian military establishment, which he has often criticized as inept and corrupt.

According to British intelligence, the chief of the Russian General Staff, Valery Gerasimov, gave orders for the soldiers to be better prepared. Prigozhin replied that “war is the time of the active and courageous, and not the clean-shaven.”

Commenting on Gerasimov’s new restrictions, the UK Ministry of Defense said on Monday (23): “Russian force continues to suffer operational stalemate and heavy casualties; Gerasimov’s prioritization of much lower standards is likely to confirm the fears of his many skeptics in Russia”.

Gerasimov was appointed commander-general of Russia’s so-called “special military operation” in Ukraine earlier this month amid growing criticism over his faltering progress.

As long as the Russian Ministry of Defense is underperforming, Prigozhin will be on its heels, demanding more resources for the GR.

The group also seems capable of obtaining weapons through other means. US officials said last week that the GR had obtained weapons from North Korea. “Last month, North Korea delivered rockets and infantry missiles to Russia for use by the GR,” said National Security Council spokesman John Kirby.

The new Rasputin?

Prigozhin does not lack ambition. Last week at Soledar he declared that the GR was probably “the most experienced army in the world today”.

He stated that his forces already had several rocket launch systems, their own air defenses and artillery.

Prigozhin also drew a subtle comparison between the GR and the top-down rigidity of the Russian military, stating that “everyone on the ground is heard. The commanders consult the combatants and the leaders of the PMC (private military company) consult the controls”.

“That is why the PMC of GR has advanced and will continue to advance.”

Two months ago, Andrei Kolesnikov, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, compared Prigozhin’s growing influence to that of Grigori Rasputin in the court of Tsar Nicholas II. “Putin needs military efficiency at any cost,” he told Current Time TV.

“There is a negative diabolical charisma in Prigozhin, and in some ways this charisma can compete with Putin’s. Putin needs him now in that capacity, in that form.”

Prigozhin seems to have been intrigued by the comparison with Rasputin, a mystical figure who treated the Tsar’s son for haemophilia, a bleeding disorder. But in comments posted this weekend by his company Concord, he put his own signature on it.

“Unfortunately, I don’t stop the flow of blood. I make our country’s enemies bleed. And not by spells, but by direct contact with them.”