Russia is incurring heavy losses amid its near round-the-clock assault on the town of Bakhmut in Ukraine"s eastern Donetsk Oblast, writes kyivindependent.com.

Kremlin-backed private mercenary Wager Group and Russian-backed militant groups active in eastern Ukraine are losing up to 80% of some assault units, Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar said on Telegram: “Evacuation of the dead and wounded is limited or not carried out at all. The situation in the front-line town is very tense and difficult for Ukrainian forces. You can see for yourself what kind of war the Russian Federation is waging. Ukrainian forces are holding back Russian advances in the area”.

According to Malyar, Russia’s significant losses are partly due to a low level of trust in the Russian military command: “More and more Russian servicemen realize that their commanders inadequately assess the situation on the battlefield, as evidenced by the intensive use of so-called “death squads” - units staffed by insufficiently trained mobilized personnel, who daily suffer heavy combat and sanitary losses”.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of Wagner, claimed on Feb. 15 that Bakhmut in Donetsk Oblast could be surrounded in March or April. Prigozhin added, though, that it is “hard to predict”, and Russia’s success in surrounding the town partially depends on the amount of Western weaponry supplied to Ukraine.