Prigozhin said “more than 20,000” of his forces died in the long battle for control of Bakhmut, according to The Associated Press.
He also noted that about “20% of the 50,000 Russian convicts” he had recruited to fight in the 15-month war had died in the eastern Ukrainian city.
He reported that Ukrainian losses were much greater, stating: “The number of dead is three times lower and the number of wounded is twice as high”.
Prigozhin has spoken publicly about the extent of his group’s casualties for the first time, as the Russian side seeks to keep the number of its dead and wounded a secret.
The Russian army published its last report in September 2022, mentioning the death of 5,900 soldiers in its ranks.
Recently leaked classified US documents put Russian casualties on March 1 at between 35,500 and 43,500.
On the other hand, Ukrainian casualties have been estimated between 16,000 and 17,500, but these figures are estimates that cannot be verified.
Last year, Yevgeny Prigozhin, who spent years in prison during the Soviet era, recruited prison officers, promising inmates their sentences would be overturned if they survived the fight.
During the Battle of Bakhmut, Kiev confirmed that Wagner’s units made up of former prisoners had carried out semi-suicidal attacks on Ukrainian defense lines and had caused a large number of deaths.
Prigozhin accuses the Russian supreme military command of not having provided him with the weapons and ammunition necessary to avoid these heavy losses.
“Currently, there are tens of thousands of relatives (soldiers) killed. There will probably be hundreds of thousands. We cannot hide it,” he said in the interview published on Tuesday, calling on the Russian generals to send their children to the front.
This weekend, the Wagner Group and the Russian military said they had taken full control of Bakhmut, which Kyiv denies.
Prigozhin confirmed that his forces would withdraw from the city by June 1 and hand over their positions to the regular army.
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