>>17653332>>17653334>>17653350Wagner declared a premature victory in Soledar over the winter, Russian Armed Forces proper had to deploy SF to Soledar in order to capture it and save the PR trouble. It came at a cost to the Russian Forces and Wagner still claimed it to be their success.
After this, their supply of ammunition started to be slowly tapered off and the recruiting of prisoners was also restricted before being entirely stopped.
However, it is also worth noting that Russia had been giving Wagner supply priority with their push for Bakhmut over the winter as Russian Forces scaled back operations around the time. The plan was for Wagner to keep the UAF busy in Bakhmut while Russia was to mobile more men (this was confirmed this past week in one of Prigozhin's Telegram rant posts) and potentially re-invade from Belarus or reinforce lines. But history shows this did not happen. Instead, Russia's most notable attempted advances were around Vuhledar (ft. lack of ammunition) and Avdiivka, footage shows us how that panned out. The rumours of further mobilisation fell silent as well.
Wagner's presence in Bakhmut was made pointless by Russia choosing not to reinforce their presence while they were bought time, and it seems Russia was given enough reason to regret the investment of supplies to Wagner.
If anyone has a better understanding of this, please chime in.
