AN attack by Ukraine on a base used by a notorious Russian mercenary group could mark a turning point in the war, according to Ukrainian MP Andrii Osadchuk.
He was commenting on reports that Ukrainian forces launched a missile attack on Russian mercenaries, known as the Wager Group, after the location of its base was accidentally revealed by a Russian state TV reporter.
Mr Osadchuk told GB News: “They’re not so professional as one may think, so they pretty often do absolutely stupid mistakes and these mistakes is giving us a chance to push them back.
“The Ukrainian military was able to kill almost 100 mercenaries from Wagner.
You should understand that they are an integral part of the Russian military.
“Wagner cannot be compared with the traditional military companies in the West. Wagner is always used by the Kremlin when they need to do something illegal, when they need to carry out some atrocities…”
Speaking live from Kyiv to Tom Harwood on GB News, he added: “For the last couple of months, the quantity of Wagner mercenaries increased dramatically.
“Before the war, I think it was between 1,500 and 2,000 people, now they increase it up to 8,000 simply because they use hiring by Wagner as a hidden mobilisation in Russia.
“Nevertheless, they put all their efforts to fight with Ukraine but we are always able to find successful ways to reply to them.
“The case with the killing of more than 100 Wagner people is good evidence of how Ukraine is efficient in using our Western weapons in the war.”
Mr Osadchuk said: “What is very important is that Western weapons which are currently used by the Ukrainian army are generations ahead of all Soviet type military equipment used by the Russian army. This means that Russia is comparatively weak compared to any Nato army.
“Secondly, I would not put too much attention to Wagner’s standalone organisation, we are fighting not with Wagner’s military company, we are fighting with 150,000 Russian soldiers on Ukrainian soil, these fools are just part of this barbarian crowd which is temporarily on the territory of Ukraine.
“That’s why we’ve not targeted them separately from any other Russian forces in Ukraine.
“That said, I would like to emphasise once again that Nato weapons, Western weapons are making a turnaround in this war, because the accuracy and the power of this equipment and good preparation of the Ukrainian army is doing a great job for Ukraine.
He added: “The biggest problem for us for today it’s not enough shells, because we still are not compatible with Russia due to their firing capacity.
“They are still making this firewall strategy, when in fact they burn square kilometres of land, we reply to that with the accuracy of Western weapons but we need more shells because daily consumption is huge.
“The overall picture for the moment looks to be a little bit better than it was a month ago. It looks like now we’re witnessing the turnaround in this war.”
