[webmobdev]

Private Armies or Private Military Contractors are desired by governments who want to deflect political accountability, and, to that end, Russian leadership isn't any different to the west on how they've been using them. In the Ukraine conflict, the Wagner group has often been used as cannon fodder. Especially in Bakhmut, where the Ukranians recently lost the bulk of their real soldiers, good soldiers, while the brunt of Russian losses was borne by the Wagner group and not the Russian military. (That is one explanation of why the Wagner group is pissed at Russian military, and, thus, the mutiny).

I agree with your perspective that certain aspects of the war weren't managed well by Russia, but disagree that war isn't going well for Russia - they appear to have achieved 80% of their strategic objectives by annexing Crimea and bordering areas of Ukraine, and holding on to it while Ukranian counter-offensives have failed to dislodge the Russians. In fact military experts in both US (Ukraine’s Chances of Victory in 2023 are Vanishingly Small - https://www.19fortyfive.com/2023/06/ukraines-chances-of-vict... ) and India (Final Battle In Russia-Ukraine War? - https://youtu.be/D0oA-Y5eTs4 ) agree that the chances of a Ukraine counter-offensive being successful are quite low.