Moscow aims to use Wagner Group to capture Bakhmut to minimise conventional army losses

Russia's Defence Ministry intends to use the Wagner Group to capture Bakhmut while minimising casualties among conventional Russian forces.

The MoD seeks to use Wagner forces to capture Bakhmut then supplant them and take credit for the victory, Caliber.Az reports, citing the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

"The Russian MoD and Prigozhin claimed that Wagner fighters comprise the main effort to take territory and push Ukrainian forces in central Bakhmut, whereas unspecified Russian Airborne (VDV) elements comprise the supporting effort on Wagner’s flanks north and south of Bakhmut, including near Zalizhnyanske, Sakko i Vantsetti, and Mykolaivka," ISW reports.

It adds that "this array of forces suggests that the Russian MoD intends to use the Wagner Group to capture Bakhmut while minimizing casualties among conventional Russian forces - supporting ISW’s prior assessments that the MoD seeks to use Wagner forces to capture Bakhmut then supplant them and take credit for the victory".

Key takeaways

The Kremlin passed legislation to use tools of digital authoritarianism to digitize and improve the effectiveness of issuing summonses and to crack down on Russian draft dodgers.

The Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) and Wagner Group financier Yevgeny Prigozhin acknowledged each other's roles in the Bakhmut effort.

A small, fringe group of pro-war Russian military bloggers called for the Russian government to repeal the censorship laws against discrediting the Russian military.

Russian forces appear to hold positions northeast of Kupyansk and have made gains in the forest area south of Kreminna.

Russian forces conducted ground attacks in and around Bakhmut and along the Avdiivka-Donetsk City line.

Russian forces conducted defensive operations in southern Ukraine.

Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu visited defence industrial enterprises in Tula Oblast as part of the ongoing effort to portray the resilience of Russia's defense industrial base (DIB).

Russian Commissioner for Children’s Rights Maria Lvova-Belova continues to confirm that Russian authorities are taking a number of actions vis-a-vis Ukrainian children in an attempt to exculpate herself from the International Criminal Court's (ICC) warrant for her arrest.