Wagner PMC uses convict-recruits as expendable near Bakhmut - British intelligence

This was reported by the British Ministry of Defense on Twitter.

British intelligence draws attention to the fact that the Russian military group Wagner continues to play an important role in the fighting around the city of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region. In recent months, the Wagner PMC has developed offensive tactics to exploit the large number of poorly trained convicts it has recruited.

Individual fighters are likely to be issued smartphones or tablets that display their intended route of advance and target of attack on commercial satellite imagery. At the platoon level and above, commanders are likely to stay in shelters and issue orders by radio and brief mercenaries via video signals from small unmanned aerial vehicles.

Individuals and sections are ordered to follow a predetermined route, often under cover of fire, but less often alongside armoured vehicles. Mercenaries who deviate from designated assault routes without permission are likely being threatened with summary execution.

"These brutal tactics aim to conserve Wagner’s rare assets of experienced commanders and armoured vehicles, at the expense of the more readily available convict-recruits, which the organisation assesses as expendable," British intelligence concluded.