“The fighting has inflicted heavy casualties on the group,” U.K. Minister of Defense Ben Wallace said at the time. “Wagner is lowering recruitment standards, hiring convicts and formerly blacklisted individuals while very limited training is available to new recruits.”
“This will highly likely impact the future operational effectiveness of the group and will reduce its value as a prop to the regular Russian forces,” he added.
The Wagner fighters were ultimately withdrawn from Ukraine following Prigozhin’s attempted coup against Putin in June, and the remaining Wagner mercenaries are reportedly dispersed between Belarus and a number of countries in Africa.
