30,000 Wagner Group fighters have been killed or injured in Putin's invasion of Ukraine, says White House spokesman

• More than 30,000 Wagner Group fighters have been killed or injured, according to US officials.
• John Kirby said that half of the Wagner fighters who perished in the war have died since mid-December.

More than 30,000 fighters from the Wagner Group, often regarded as Putin's de facto private army, have been killed or injured since the invasion of Ukraine began, according to US officials.

Speaking at a press conference on Friday, Coordinator for Strategic Communications at the National Security Council in the White House John Kirby said, "while fighting in Ukraine, we estimate now that Wagner has suffered more than 30,000 casualties, including approximately 9,000 killed in action."

He added that half of the Wagner fighters who have perished in the war had died since mid-December when fighting around the eastern city of Bakhmut intensified.

Kirby stated that, according to US intelligence, 90% of the Wagner Group soldiers killed in the last two and a half months were convicts.

Kirby said that the Wagner Group are "treating their recruits, largely convicts, as basically — as cannon fodder, throwing them into a literal meat grinder here, inhuman ways, without a second thought."

This bleak description comes as the Wagner Group released a video on Telegram showing stacks of bodies piled up in Bakhmut, saying a lack of ammunition is killing their men.

"We're losing our fighters every day: it would be half as much if the military officials were to supply us with weapons and ammunition on time," a man in a hazmat suit said in the video.

While the Wagner Group has made limited advances in Bakhmut, Kirby said this gain has come at a "devastating cost that is not sustainable."

"It is possible that they may end up being successful in Bakhmut, but it will prove of no real worth to them because it is of no real strategic value," the security council official said.

A recent intelligence briefing from the UK Ministry of Defence stated that the rate of Russian soldiers being wounded or killed has "significantly increased" since Putin's mobilization in September.

According to British intelligence, 40-60,000 Russian soldiers and Wagner Group fighters have been killed since February 2022.

"By modern standards, these figures represent a high ratio of personnel killed compared to those wounded. This is almost certainly due to extremely rudimentary medical provision across much of the force," said the MoD.