Nearly 8,000 mercenaries from the notorious Wagner Group have been deployed by Russia in the conflict in Ukraine, but they have suffered heavy casualties, MPs have been told. Giving evidence to the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, Christo Grozev, executive director of the Bellingcat investigative website, said 3,000 members of the private military company were thought to have been killed on the battlefield.
He said sources within the group – the largest of three mercenary groups involved in the conflict – had told them that the numbers fighting alongside Russian forces had been “much higher” than had been expected. They included 200 personnel sent to Kyiv before the conflict in a failed mission to “scout out and assassinate” political figures, while a “large number” were deployed with convoys that advanced on the capital from Belarus.
He said they had also been present in Bucha, where some of the worst evidence of alleged war crimes had been discovered. Mr Grozev said they had been told by one former group member that some chose to fight because they enjoyed killing.
