About 9,000 Wagner fighters killed in Ukraine in recent weeks – White House

These assessments were shared during a press briefing on Friday by John Kirby, the Coordinator for Strategic Communications at the National Security Council.

"They’re treating their recruits, largely convicts, basically — as cannon fodder, throwing them into a literal meat grinder there, inhuman ways, without a second thought," Kirby said.

Kirby pointed out that Russian forces, mainly from Wagner Group, continue to fight around Bakhmut, but noted that this city is not of particular strategic importance.

“We believe that Wagner continues to rely heavily on these convicts in the Bakhmut fighting, and that doesn’t show any signs of abating. Seems to be an operation almost exclusively run by Mr. Prigozhin and the Wagner Group, more than it is the Russian Ministry of Defense.

It is possible that they might end up being successful in Bakhmut.  But it will prove of no real worth to them because it is of no real strategic value,” Kirby added.

• Wagner Group PMC appeared in 2014 and was active in a number of countries where Russia has important interests, including Syria, Libya, the Central African Republic, and Ukraine. There, they committed, among other things, war crimes and crimes against humanity. After Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Wagner's mercenaries took part in massacres of civilians. In the summer, the PMC began recruiting prisoners. Prigozhin also recruits mercenaries for the war in Ukraine and Africa.

• Recently, a new cemetery of Wagner soldiers who were liquidated in Ukraine was discovered in the Luhansk region.