Written question asked by John Healey (Labour) on Thursday, 29 June 2023, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 4 July 2023 (named day). It was answered by James Heappey (Conservative) on Wednesday, 5 July 2023 on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.

Wagner Group

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether his Department has made an estimate of the number of Wagner mercenaries (a) killed in action, (b) wounded and (c) deserted from their posts since 24 February 2022.

Answer: We estimate that approximately 220,000 Russian military personnel have been killed or wounded since the start of the conflict. We estimate over 6,200 Russian armoured vehicles, including nearly 2,050 main battle tanks, 80 fixed wing aircraft, 95 helicopters, 250 unmanned aerial vehicles, 12 naval vessels of all classes, and over 1,000 artillery systems of all types have been destroyed since the start of the conflict. The specific number of Wagner mercenaries killed and wounded since late February 2023 is not clear, however the group highly likely continued to sustain heavy casualties before beginning to withdraw its forces from the Popasna-Bakhmut area in late May 2023.

Secondary information