Ukrainian troops say fighting 'regular' Russian soldiers in Bakhmut will be easy

Ukrainian soldiers say fighting the Russian Armed Forces in Bakhmut won’t be as hard as facing off against the Wagner Group according to troops stationed on the frontlines. 

The battle for Bakhmut isn’t over yet according to The Washington Post and the fight for the city could get a lot easier for the Ukrainians once the Wagner Group has rotated out. 

“Fighting with regular Russian forces is not as hard as fighting with Wagner,” one drone operator from the Ukrainian 24th Separate Assault Battalion told The Washington Post. 

The 26-year-old drone pilot, who only went by his nickname Chuck for security reasons, told journalists that Wagner forces were far more cunning than regular Russian soldiers. 

The Washington Post reported that Chuck found Wagner mercenaries hard to deal with because they used unorthodox tactics and he was hopeful they would leave Bakhmut. 

Another soldier, Chichen, is a commander in the same assault battalion as Chuck and explained that Russian regulars didn’t fight as well as troops from the Wagner Group. 

“It’s interesting because the Wagner guys were sitting back in their little bunkers not coming out,” Chichen said. “Whereas the Russians, they’re young, they’re fresh, they’re new, and they basically just walk out. Then we give them h***.”

Chichen went on to talk about the unorthodox tactics Wagner soldiers used in Bakhmut, tactics that The Washington Post reported led to heavy losses for the mercenary outfit. 

“Around them would be dead bodies, weapons,” Chichen told journalists. ”It looked like the position was abandoned. But then when you come closer, they come out of the hole and shoot you in the back,” the Ukrainian commander continued. 

Ukrainian troops have been preparing for Wagner’s departure from Bakhmut ever since the group's founder announced his mercenary force would be leaving the embattled city after taking the last of it in late May.

On May 21st, Yevgeny Prigozhin announced that the Wagner Group had captured the last remaining territory needed to claim victory in the city of Bakhmut and then quickly said that he would be handing those gains over to the Russian Ministry of Defense.

"Wagner has made no advances. Wagner today captured no territory. We have captured all the territory we promised to capture, right up to the last centimeter," Prigozhin said in an audio message that was posted to his Telegram according to a Reuters translation. 

"As we stated yesterday,” Prigozhin continued, “we are handing over our positions to [Russia's] Defence Ministry and on the 25th [of May] we are leaving the conflict zone."

Prigozhin’s timeline was later pushed back to June 1st and there have been scattered reports that the Wagner Group has been rotating out of its positions in Bakhmut to rest and reconstitute its forces after a grueling months-long battle to capture the city. 

“Knowing that Wagner is not a fair player, I won’t believe them until we see what the captured [Russian] soldiers are saying,” Chuck told The Washington Post.

However, it does appear by all accounts that some forces have been funneling out of Bakhmut according to Ukraine’s secretary of the National Security and Defence Council Oleksiy Danilov, but he warned that the news wasn’t as good as it sounded. 

In an interview with BBC News, Danilov said that while Wagner forces were leaving Bakhmut, the mercenary group was "regrouping to another three locations,” adding "it doesn't mean that they will stop fighting with us."