About 6,000 Wagner group mercenaries fighting in Bakhmut – General Milley

Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley stated this on Wednesday, an Ukrinform correspondent reports, referring to CNN.

“They're (Wagner mercenaries – ed.) conducting combat operations right now in Bakhmut primarily. It's probably about 6,000 or so actual mercenaries and maybe another 20 or 30,000 recruits that they get, many of whom come from prisons,” Milley said.

He added that Russians “are suffering an enormous amount of casualties in the Bakhmut area; the Ukrainians are inflicting a lot of death and destruction.” 

“The Ukrainians are doing a very effective area defense that is proven to be very costly to the Russians. For about the last 20, 21 days, the Russians have not made any progress whatsoever in and around Bakhmut. So it's a slaughter-fest for the Russians. They're getting hammered in the vicinity of Bakhmut and the Ukrainians have fought very, very well,” he said.

As reported by Ukrinform, in the past 24 hours, the settlements of Bilohorivka, Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Marinka remain at the epicenter of hostilities, the Defense Forces of Ukraine repelled 48 attacks in these sectors.