Budanov explains why Wagner PMC is more effective than regular Russian army

Budanov shared the information in an interview with Yahoo News, according to the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine's Main Intelligence Directorate on Telegram. 

"Unlike the regular troops of the Russian military, Wagner engages in training. Even the convicts they recruit from Russian prisons are being trained to serve and that is why the results are a lot better than what normal regular army have. They are our enemy, but we need to admit that they are an enemy you’re not ashamed of. It’s incomparable to the level of regular troops. They are a lot higher," Budanov said. 

At the same time, he noted that the founder of Wagner PMC, Yevgeny Prigozhin, is using the huge losses of his mercenaries to promote his own political career. 

 "His political future is directly linked to his physical survival because there are too many forces in the Russian Federation who want to eliminate him. He obviously will try to defend himself because for him it’s not even an issue of exile or prison; it’s an issue of life and death," Budanov explained. 

• The founder of Wagner PMC, Yevgeny Prigozhin, wrote a letter to the leadership of the Russian Defense Ministry, in which he announced his intention to withdraw his mercenaries from Bakhmut on May 10. 

• On May 6, Prigozhin said that his mercenaries would hand over their positions in Bakhmut to Ramzan Kadyrov's troops on May 10. 

• On May 7, the Institute for the Study of War concluded that Prigozhin and Kadyrov were trying to blame the Russian Defense Ministry for the failures in Donbas by rotating their mercenaries in Bakhmut.