Video Shows Missile Strike Blow Up Wagner Soldiers in Bakhmut Trench

Video posted online shows a Ukrainian missile strike blowing up Russian soldiers in Bakhmut, the eastern city at the forefront of the war.

The clip shows seven soldiers walking in a trench as an anti-tank guided missile (ATGM) strikes them.

The video was shared on the Ukrainian political party Third Force's Telegram page on Tuesday with the caption, "The Third Force continues to hunt Wagner's mercenaries in the direction of Bakhmut." Russia's Wagner Group, which is leading the battle for Bakhmut, is a paramilitary organization that was sent to the region in 2014 to help pro-Russian separatists.

"Thanks to the brave infantry holding Bakhmut, we are able to track down and destroy the assault groups of the Russian fascists," the Third Force wrote. "The hunt continues."

Earlier in the day, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made a surprise visit to Bakhmut where much of the fighting in the 10 months-long war has intensified recently. Russia has spent months trying to capture the city in Ukraine's Donetsk region.

"Bakhmut is the hottest spot on the entire frontline—more than 1,300 kilometers of active hostilities," Zelensky said Tuesday.

"Since May, the occupiers have been trying to break our Bakhmut, but time goes by and Bakhmut is already breaking not only the Russian Army but also the Russian mercenaries who came to replace the wasted army of the occupiers," he added.

Experts have questioned Russia's strategy in Bakhmut, arguing that the military and personnel resources being spent don't outweigh any possible operational advantage.

Calculations based on Ukrainian estimates say that Russian President Vladimir Putin's army is on track to reach 100,000 troop losses ahead of Christmas this weekend. As of Monday, roughly 98,000 Russian soldiers have died fighting in the war in Ukraine.

It has been reported that Russia is deploying convict recruits, which it sees as expendable, in the battle of Bakhmut to protect its more experienced commanders in the Wagner Group, which was founded by Putin ally Yevgeny Prigozhin.

In a daily intelligence update, Britain's Ministry of Defence said that the Russian army is trying to conserve "rare assets of experienced commanders and armored vehicles" from Wagner at the expense of more "readily available convict-recruits."

Russian independent news outlet MediaZona previously reported that the Wagner Group has recruited prisoners en masse, leading the number of male convicts in Russia to drop by 23,000 in just two months.

"The reason is that their death does not resonate in Russian society and therefore allows Russians not to think about losses," the National Resistance Center of Ukraine said last week. "At the same time, these losses do not demoralize Wagner Group, because the qualified staff and management did not participate in the assault."