Zelenskyy Says Ukraine Has Killed a Total of 21,000 Pro-Russian Wagner Forces

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his troops have killed at least 21,000 mercenaries from the pro-Russian Wagner Group and injured another 80,000 since the war with Russia began 17 months ago.

Zelenskyy made the claim during an interview with the Spanish newspaper El Mundo on Friday.

In response to a question about the Wagner Group marching troops toward Moscow last week in a rebellion over differences with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Zelenskyy declared that the Wagnerites were turning against the Kremlin.

Putin’s "most powerful group was in eastern Ukraine" where prisoners were used in attacks, said Zelenskyy.

"They were so strong because they had no other way out but to attack. They had no choice, either advance or fall, but they could not stop or retreat," he said.

The Russian army, in contrast, "has no motivation and is weaker than us, said the Ukrainian president.

The Wagner Group is comprised of two categories: professional mercenaries and those mobilized from prisons, their cannon fodder, he noted.

“Our troops killed 21,000 of them and left 80,000 wounded. These are colossal casualties, but it gives an idea of ​​how big these types of groups are in eastern Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said.

Zelenskyy's numbers could not immediately be confirmed.

“The good news is that we have destroyed the most motivated part of the Russian effort.”

Ukraine's troops are “motivated because they and their children and their parents want to survive. “

Fighters in the Wagner Group, led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, halted a march to Moscow last Saturday after a deal was brokered with Prigozhin by Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko.

Prigozhin returned to Belarus as part of the agreement while the advancing Wagner troops returned to camps in eastern Ukraine. None of them will be prosecuted for their part in the rebellion, Russian officials have said.

Troops from the Wagner Group who chose not to join the rebellion have reportedly been offered contracts from the Russian Ministry of Defense.

The Ukraine Ministry of Defense says more than 228,000 Russian troops have been killed since the war began in February 2022.