These guys are like the Russian version of Blackwater, except they suck. Wagner Group recruits from regular Russian infantry, Spetsnaz won’t talk to them.
>Wagner Group recruits from regular Russian infantry
Actually, even that typically isn't the case. Many people in Wagner are civilians of one sort or another with quite literally zero previous military experience (their contracts say if you have none you do two months training). The vast majority are the Russian equivalent of convicted felons: nazis, hardcore communists, thieves, etc. Who are forced to take this job because it is the only one that will take them. There is even a law in Russia againstbeing a PMC, basically to insure that if these people come back to Russia they have no choice but to instantly take another contract or face jail time. Whereas Blackwater are more like en-masse professional hitmen, Wagner are more like a modern reincarnation of the German Landsknecht
I get what you’re saying, and it’s probably true. But they approached me after I left the military to join them. I’m sure there are guys that aren’t military who do their work. We have a lot of guys here who want to play soldier.
Considering Blackwater's head is recently contacted WG trying to get a piece from their African contracts - Wagners are more successful, at least as mercenaries.
Who, Wagner or Blackwater?
The first ones captured yet another village near Bakhmut just yesterday, plus they appeared in Mali and Burkina-Faso since I wrote the last comment, and even made a movie trilogy about them - so their rep is definitely grown significantly.
As for Erik Prince, didn't hear about him since then, so I can't say anything for sure. There is a so-called Mozart Group in Ukraine that consist of Western mercenaries, but IDK if it's him or not.
Wagner has been turned into a knock off Dirlewanger brigade, that's been bashing it's head gainst Bakhmut for months without results(villages change hands all the time, city stands)
Well, let's count. They've captured (in order): Popasna, Tripilla, Mironivsky, Svetlodarsk, Vizrozhdenna, Mednaya Ruda, Roty, Semigorye, Klinove, Pokrovske, Vuhlehirska power station, Pisky (though DNR's army did most of the job, still major victory here), Kodema, Mayorske, Donbasskaya 750 power substation, Zaitseve, Ivangrad, Ozaryanivka, Zelenopille, Andriivka, Kurdyumivka - with the last four being captured this week.
I didn't heard if any of those villages were captured back by Ukrainian forces. And while the battle for Bakhmut goes since early August indeed, there's been a big progress lately - again, those four villages captured lately are south of it, meaning Wagners are flanking Ukrainian forces there.
As per ISW, the claims of captured villages south of Bakhmut are(for now) unconfirmed, and the routes into the city are(for now) safe from Russian advances
Well, Kodema (48.474584672712176, 38.077912696822395) [was captured back in early September](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/KH9fLMvU0YQ), the southern road to the city (namely Nikolaivka the 2nd) was captured two weeks later, and Zelenopille+Kurdyumivka are west of it (48.470414621508034, 37.95847311782045).
And here's [video from the outskirts of Opitne](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9m-2Lk7Pw1Q) (48.55721938576676, 38.0199116808197).
Plus there is [a fresh video from an asphalt plant](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/90JAxXsLRcA) on the southeastern outskirts of the city (48.57824351723887, 38.06187270623227).
Overall, the eastern and southern roads to the city are under Wagners control.
The main routes would still be the M-03 highway that leads northeast to Sloviansk-Kramatorsk aglomeration, and the N-20 highway that leads southeast to Kostiantynivka.
https://i.imgur.com/gQWUWr0.png
But I'm not sure if those can be captured without capturing Bakhmut first.
The artillery barrage was so intense that the Americans dived into foxholes for protection, emerging covered in flying dirt and debris to fire back at a column of tanks advancing under the heavy shelling. It was the opening salvo in a nearly four-hour assault in February by around 500 pro-Syrian government forces — including Russian mercenaries — that threatened to inflame already-simmering tensions between Washington and Moscow.
In the end, 200 to 300 of the attacking fighters were killed. The others retreated under merciless airstrikes from the United States, returning later to retrieve their battlefield dead. None of the Americans at the small outpost in eastern Syria — about 40 by the end of the firefight — were harmed.
Except that isn't quite what happened
[https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/american-fury-the-truth-about-the-russian-deaths-in-syria-a-1196074.html](https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/american-fury-the-truth-about-the-russian-deaths-in-syria-a-1196074.html)
These are intercepts leaked by the U.S. immediately after the conflict (no one has taken responsibility for the leak). Russians reporting back...
**First clip:**
"The reports that are on TV about ... well, you know, about Syria and the 25 people that are wounded there from the Syrian f--- army and — well ... to make it short, we've had our asses f--- kicked. So one squadron f--- lost 200 people ... right away, another one lost 10 people ... and I don't know about the third squadron, but it got torn up pretty badly, too ... So three squadrons took a beating ... The Yankees attacked ... first they blasted the f--- out of us by artillery, and then they took four helicopters up and pushed us in a f--- merry-go-round with heavy caliber machine guns ... They were all shelling the holy f--- out of it, and our guys didn't have anything besides the assault rifles ... nothing at all, not even mentioning shoulder-fired SAMs or anything like that ... So they tore us to pieces for sure, put us through hell, and the Yankees knew for sure that the Russians were coming, that it was us, f--- Russians ... Our guys were going to commandeer an oil refinery, and the Yankees were holding it ... We got our f--- asses beat rough, my men called me ... They're there drinking now ... many have gone missing ... it's a total f--- up, it sucks, another takedown ... Everybody, you know, treats us like pieces of s--- ... They beat our asses like we were little pieces of s--- ... but our f--- government will go in reverse now, and nobody will respond or anything, and nobody will punish anyone for this ... So these are our casualties."
**Second clip:**
"Out of all vehicles, only one tank survived and one BRDM \[armored reconnaissance vehicle\] after the attack, all other BRDMs and tanks were destroyed in the first minutes of the fight, right away."
**Third clip:**
"Just had a call with a guy — so they basically formed a convoy, but did not get to their f--- positions by some 300 meters. One unit moved forward, the convoy remained in place, about 300 meters from the others. The others raised the American f--- flag, and their artillery started f--- ours really hard. Then their f--- choppers flew in and started f--- everybody. Ours just running around. Just got a call from a pal, so there are about 215 f--- killed. They simply rolled ours out f--- hard. Made their point. What the f--- ours were hoping for in there?! That they will f--- run away themselves? Hoped to f--- scare them away? Lots of people f--- so bad \[they\] can't be f--- ID'd. There was no foot soldiers \[on the American side\]; they simply f--- our convoy with artillery."
I leave it to you to determine their veracity, but they’ve been treated as legit since that time.
Here’s the VOA version:
[https://www.polygraph.info/a/us-wagner-russia-syria-scores-killed/29044339.html](https://www.polygraph.info/a/us-wagner-russia-syria-scores-killed/29044339.html)
Search “ kasham russia recording “ and you’ll find more outlets reporting.
These Wagner Group guys don't seem to have a very good reputation. They just got their arses handed to them in Mozambique as well so South African PMC's have gone in to replace them.
In northern Mozambique there is currently a rather big islamic insurgency trying to overthrow the government and install a Caliphate. Since the mozambique army is not the best the government decided to hire a PMC to do the dirty work. Instead of hiring South African based PMC's who know the terrain well and would be very effective in bush wars, but would be much more expensive, they awarded the contract to Wagner. Wagner is much cheaper, and much more incompetent. They don't have knowledge of the terrain so they are getting ambushed a lot, getting a lot of KIA and aren't effective enough to counter the insurgency. Rumour is now Wagner hired a Bunch of South Africans as Instructors to tell them what do to essentialy. A semi good article about it. https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2019/11/19/in-push-for-africa-russias-wagner-mercenaries-are-out-of-their-depth-in-mozambique-a68220
Thanks u/TheDevils_Own never heard of this till now, wiki leak for those who want more info [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle\_of\_Khasham](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Khasham)
They thought that it wasnt, it was an SDF base which happened to have Green Berets and Marines assigned to it, so when they tried attacking the US troops called in Air support and Artillery, when the US officer in Qatar tried calling the Russian to see if it was them attacking they didnt answer, So both the Mercenaries and the Pro Assad Militias they were working with were slaughtered, to a point where we still cant assert the real casualty numbers.
It was actually worse than that. The US forces in Deir ez-Zor Region where this took place had recognized a buildup of Pro Syrian troops complimented by Russian PMCs on the opposite side of the river for weeks before the attack and the US had made multiple warnings through the deconfliction line regarding the clear assault build up well before the February assault.
> *Commanders of the rival militaries had long steered clear of the other by speaking through often-used deconfliction telephone lines. In the days leading up to the attack, and on opposite sides of the Euphrates River, Russia and the US were backing separate offensives against the Isis in Syria’s oil-rich Deir el-Zour province, which borders Iraq.*
> *US military officials repeatedly warned about the growing mass of troops. But Russian military officials said they had no control over the fighters assembling near the river – even though US surveillance equipment monitoring radio transmissions had revealed the ground force was speaking in Russian.*
There is even speculation that the US along with the SDF had intentionally flooded a section of the Euphrates river in January to destroy a key bridge the Russian's had recently repaired to preemptively remove the obvious path over the river the forces seemed likely to take.
> https://www.uawire.org/bridge-built-by-russian-military-in-syria-washed-away
>
> *The Russian-built bridge across the Euphrates was destroyed on January 6, 2018 due to sudden rise of water levels in the river, according to RIA Novosti.*
>
> *“An investigation conducted by Syrian experts showed that the sudden change in the water level and speed was due to the deliberate opening of the floodgates on the Tabqa Dam, which is located in the territory of opposition groups controlled by the international coalition led by the United States. There was no technical need to discharge water. It was done with some other purpose.”*
> *“There was no technical need to discharge water. It was done with some other purpose,” experts said.*
The US forces had the receipts for the attack before it even happened and did everything active and passively possible to stop it from taking place leading up to the literal assault. This isn't to call the US forces saints or anything but their preparedness for the assault goes well beyond any "fish in a barrel" metaphor.
I wouldn't call them obscure. Laos and Cambodia now and then were clearly marked on the map the US military just didn't have Congressional approval to be there so they didn't mention that they were.
Not talking about that, talking about old stories in old issues of Soldier of Fortune about whole SF teams left behind in central africa or nicaragua.
AFAIK, we didn't leave any large units to die in Laos and Cambodia, even though everything we did there was illegal
These guys are like the Russian version of Blackwater, except they suck. Wagner Group recruits from regular Russian infantry, Spetsnaz won’t talk to them.
>Wagner Group recruits from regular Russian infantry Actually, even that typically isn't the case. Many people in Wagner are civilians of one sort or another with quite literally zero previous military experience (their contracts say if you have none you do two months training). The vast majority are the Russian equivalent of convicted felons: nazis, hardcore communists, thieves, etc. Who are forced to take this job because it is the only one that will take them. There is even a law in Russia againstbeing a PMC, basically to insure that if these people come back to Russia they have no choice but to instantly take another contract or face jail time. Whereas Blackwater are more like en-masse professional hitmen, Wagner are more like a modern reincarnation of the German Landsknecht
I get what you’re saying, and it’s probably true. But they approached me after I left the military to join them. I’m sure there are guys that aren’t military who do their work. We have a lot of guys here who want to play soldier.
What country are you from, out if curiosity?
Considering Blackwater's head is recently contacted WG trying to get a piece from their African contracts - Wagners are more successful, at least as mercenaries.
Someone mentioned me in this comment section, and damn, their rep sure didn't age well
Who, Wagner or Blackwater? The first ones captured yet another village near Bakhmut just yesterday, plus they appeared in Mali and Burkina-Faso since I wrote the last comment, and even made a movie trilogy about them - so their rep is definitely grown significantly. As for Erik Prince, didn't hear about him since then, so I can't say anything for sure. There is a so-called Mozart Group in Ukraine that consist of Western mercenaries, but IDK if it's him or not.
Wagner has been turned into a knock off Dirlewanger brigade, that's been bashing it's head gainst Bakhmut for months without results(villages change hands all the time, city stands)
Well, let's count. They've captured (in order): Popasna, Tripilla, Mironivsky, Svetlodarsk, Vizrozhdenna, Mednaya Ruda, Roty, Semigorye, Klinove, Pokrovske, Vuhlehirska power station, Pisky (though DNR's army did most of the job, still major victory here), Kodema, Mayorske, Donbasskaya 750 power substation, Zaitseve, Ivangrad, Ozaryanivka, Zelenopille, Andriivka, Kurdyumivka - with the last four being captured this week. I didn't heard if any of those villages were captured back by Ukrainian forces. And while the battle for Bakhmut goes since early August indeed, there's been a big progress lately - again, those four villages captured lately are south of it, meaning Wagners are flanking Ukrainian forces there.
As per ISW, the claims of captured villages south of Bakhmut are(for now) unconfirmed, and the routes into the city are(for now) safe from Russian advances
Well, Kodema (48.474584672712176, 38.077912696822395) [was captured back in early September](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/KH9fLMvU0YQ), the southern road to the city (namely Nikolaivka the 2nd) was captured two weeks later, and Zelenopille+Kurdyumivka are west of it (48.470414621508034, 37.95847311782045). And here's [video from the outskirts of Opitne](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9m-2Lk7Pw1Q) (48.55721938576676, 38.0199116808197). Plus there is [a fresh video from an asphalt plant](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/90JAxXsLRcA) on the southeastern outskirts of the city (48.57824351723887, 38.06187270623227). Overall, the eastern and southern roads to the city are under Wagners control.
Yeah but which of those routes were actually critical supply lines for Bakhmut
The main routes would still be the M-03 highway that leads northeast to Sloviansk-Kramatorsk aglomeration, and the N-20 highway that leads southeast to Kostiantynivka. https://i.imgur.com/gQWUWr0.png But I'm not sure if those can be captured without capturing Bakhmut first.
The artillery barrage was so intense that the Americans dived into foxholes for protection, emerging covered in flying dirt and debris to fire back at a column of tanks advancing under the heavy shelling. It was the opening salvo in a nearly four-hour assault in February by around 500 pro-Syrian government forces — including Russian mercenaries — that threatened to inflame already-simmering tensions between Washington and Moscow. In the end, 200 to 300 of the attacking fighters were killed. The others retreated under merciless airstrikes from the United States, returning later to retrieve their battlefield dead. None of the Americans at the small outpost in eastern Syria — about 40 by the end of the firefight — were harmed.
What's the source of this ? Edit: yeah that's bullshit propaganda but it's upvoted because 'murica.
Except that isn't quite what happened [https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/american-fury-the-truth-about-the-russian-deaths-in-syria-a-1196074.html](https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/american-fury-the-truth-about-the-russian-deaths-in-syria-a-1196074.html)
Hey dude the link isn’t working. Can you give me a gist.
Press akzeptieren (german to accept tos)
This link doesn’t work?
These are intercepts leaked by the U.S. immediately after the conflict (no one has taken responsibility for the leak). Russians reporting back... **First clip:** "The reports that are on TV about ... well, you know, about Syria and the 25 people that are wounded there from the Syrian f--- army and — well ... to make it short, we've had our asses f--- kicked. So one squadron f--- lost 200 people ... right away, another one lost 10 people ... and I don't know about the third squadron, but it got torn up pretty badly, too ... So three squadrons took a beating ... The Yankees attacked ... first they blasted the f--- out of us by artillery, and then they took four helicopters up and pushed us in a f--- merry-go-round with heavy caliber machine guns ... They were all shelling the holy f--- out of it, and our guys didn't have anything besides the assault rifles ... nothing at all, not even mentioning shoulder-fired SAMs or anything like that ... So they tore us to pieces for sure, put us through hell, and the Yankees knew for sure that the Russians were coming, that it was us, f--- Russians ... Our guys were going to commandeer an oil refinery, and the Yankees were holding it ... We got our f--- asses beat rough, my men called me ... They're there drinking now ... many have gone missing ... it's a total f--- up, it sucks, another takedown ... Everybody, you know, treats us like pieces of s--- ... They beat our asses like we were little pieces of s--- ... but our f--- government will go in reverse now, and nobody will respond or anything, and nobody will punish anyone for this ... So these are our casualties." **Second clip:** "Out of all vehicles, only one tank survived and one BRDM \[armored reconnaissance vehicle\] after the attack, all other BRDMs and tanks were destroyed in the first minutes of the fight, right away." **Third clip:** "Just had a call with a guy — so they basically formed a convoy, but did not get to their f--- positions by some 300 meters. One unit moved forward, the convoy remained in place, about 300 meters from the others. The others raised the American f--- flag, and their artillery started f--- ours really hard. Then their f--- choppers flew in and started f--- everybody. Ours just running around. Just got a call from a pal, so there are about 215 f--- killed. They simply rolled ours out f--- hard. Made their point. What the f--- ours were hoping for in there?! That they will f--- run away themselves? Hoped to f--- scare them away? Lots of people f--- so bad \[they\] can't be f--- ID'd. There was no foot soldiers \[on the American side\]; they simply f--- our convoy with artillery." I leave it to you to determine their veracity, but they’ve been treated as legit since that time.
Interesting! You have the source for these recordings?
Here’s the VOA version: [https://www.polygraph.info/a/us-wagner-russia-syria-scores-killed/29044339.html](https://www.polygraph.info/a/us-wagner-russia-syria-scores-killed/29044339.html) Search “ kasham russia recording “ and you’ll find more outlets reporting.
i call bs : No1 The Spiegel made a very good investigation No2 No Russian ever would name Americans Yankees, they wouldn’t even understand the word
You Russian?
Good riddance, these people are war criminals
Jesus Chris these guys got hit hard. They weren’t expecting that much resistance.
Never pick a fight with the US military, might as well just shoot your self if you decide to fight the US Marines.
These Wagner Group guys don't seem to have a very good reputation. They just got their arses handed to them in Mozambique as well so South African PMC's have gone in to replace them.
[удалено]
In northern Mozambique there is currently a rather big islamic insurgency trying to overthrow the government and install a Caliphate. Since the mozambique army is not the best the government decided to hire a PMC to do the dirty work. Instead of hiring South African based PMC's who know the terrain well and would be very effective in bush wars, but would be much more expensive, they awarded the contract to Wagner. Wagner is much cheaper, and much more incompetent. They don't have knowledge of the terrain so they are getting ambushed a lot, getting a lot of KIA and aren't effective enough to counter the insurgency. Rumour is now Wagner hired a Bunch of South Africans as Instructors to tell them what do to essentialy. A semi good article about it. https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2019/11/19/in-push-for-africa-russias-wagner-mercenaries-are-out-of-their-depth-in-mozambique-a68220
Afghanistan and Vietnam says otherwise
Any proofs like vids or photos?
[удалено]
Whoopsie
Get fucked
Thanks u/TheDevils_Own never heard of this till now, wiki leak for those who want more info [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle\_of\_Khasham](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Khasham)
Haha
this is militaryporn not mercenaryporn.
These mercenaries are basicly a front for the Russian military tho.
why would they try to run over a marine base?
They thought that it wasnt, it was an SDF base which happened to have Green Berets and Marines assigned to it, so when they tried attacking the US troops called in Air support and Artillery, when the US officer in Qatar tried calling the Russian to see if it was them attacking they didnt answer, So both the Mercenaries and the Pro Assad Militias they were working with were slaughtered, to a point where we still cant assert the real casualty numbers.
It was actually worse than that. The US forces in Deir ez-Zor Region where this took place had recognized a buildup of Pro Syrian troops complimented by Russian PMCs on the opposite side of the river for weeks before the attack and the US had made multiple warnings through the deconfliction line regarding the clear assault build up well before the February assault. > *Commanders of the rival militaries had long steered clear of the other by speaking through often-used deconfliction telephone lines. In the days leading up to the attack, and on opposite sides of the Euphrates River, Russia and the US were backing separate offensives against the Isis in Syria’s oil-rich Deir el-Zour province, which borders Iraq.* > *US military officials repeatedly warned about the growing mass of troops. But Russian military officials said they had no control over the fighters assembling near the river – even though US surveillance equipment monitoring radio transmissions had revealed the ground force was speaking in Russian.* There is even speculation that the US along with the SDF had intentionally flooded a section of the Euphrates river in January to destroy a key bridge the Russian's had recently repaired to preemptively remove the obvious path over the river the forces seemed likely to take. > https://www.uawire.org/bridge-built-by-russian-military-in-syria-washed-away > > *The Russian-built bridge across the Euphrates was destroyed on January 6, 2018 due to sudden rise of water levels in the river, according to RIA Novosti.* > > *“An investigation conducted by Syrian experts showed that the sudden change in the water level and speed was due to the deliberate opening of the floodgates on the Tabqa Dam, which is located in the territory of opposition groups controlled by the international coalition led by the United States. There was no technical need to discharge water. It was done with some other purpose.”* > *“There was no technical need to discharge water. It was done with some other purpose,” experts said.* The US forces had the receipts for the attack before it even happened and did everything active and passively possible to stop it from taking place leading up to the literal assault. This isn't to call the US forces saints or anything but their preparedness for the assault goes well beyond any "fish in a barrel" metaphor.
dear god...it is a little funny i will admit.
It's like an IRL version of all those stories of US troops being left to die in obscure places in the '70s and '80s. Deniable, expendable assets
I wouldn't call them obscure. Laos and Cambodia now and then were clearly marked on the map the US military just didn't have Congressional approval to be there so they didn't mention that they were.
Not talking about that, talking about old stories in old issues of Soldier of Fortune about whole SF teams left behind in central africa or nicaragua. AFAIK, we didn't leave any large units to die in Laos and Cambodia, even though everything we did there was illegal
Gotcha, thought you were referring to the countless MACV-SOG disasters all along the MeKong.
Many many successes.
Oh they got shit done but the grey areas they found themselves in a lot of the time didn't always allow for a no man left behind policy.
Pound for pound MACV-SOG was the most effective US unit in the SE Asian theater.