Take a look at Shannon Vavra doing Deep State stenography for the Daily Beast:

Tens of thousands of fighters rounded up to fight in Ukraine for Wagner Group , the Russian private mercenary fighting corps, have gone missing or died, according to a Russian non-governmental organization. . . .

The statistic cited is just the latest indication that Wagner’s fighting force is falling apart in Ukraine, even as Russia works to secure wins on the battlefield almost one year after the invasion of Ukraine.

Wagner Group fighters have been involved in the heavy fighting in Soledar in recent weeks, a town in which Russia has claimed victory. Wagner has also been largely responsible for gains made in Bakhmut nearby, “at an extraordinary cost,” given that many of the Wagner recruits had minimal training since Wagner recruited 40,000 convicts, John Kirby, a White House National Security Council coordinator, told reporters last week.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky hinted at the dramatic losses the Russians are sustaining in Soledar in a recent speech as well.

https://www.newsbreak.com/news/2900347444966/russia-s-elite-shadow-army-edges-into-complete-collapse?noAds=1&_f=app_share&s=i3

Unlike Baghdad Bob, President Zelensky is being enabled by a host of Western government leaders and media pundits as clings tenaciously to the belief that Ukraine still controls Soledar. But the reality displayed on the following map tells a different story:

“The headquarters of the territorial defense of the DPR announced the liberation of Krasnopolevka.” As you can see on the map, Krasnopolevka is northwest of Soledar. Russia’s Wagner Group is not behaving as a decimated force hemorrhaging personnel. The Russians are moving methodically to envelop the Ukrainian forces in a cauldron and Zelensky continues to insist they are winning. It just dawned on me that Zelensky, as a former comedian, is channeling his inner Monty Python with Ukraine as the Black Knight.

Not all of the Ukrainian leadership is out of touch with reality:

In this morning’s report, the Ukrainian General staff confirms that Russian fighters have advanced significantly along the Artemivsk-Konstantinovka highway and are storming Predtechino and Stupochek.

To the north of Artemivsk, the assault on Paraskoveyevka and Krasnaya Gora continues. Also, the offensive in the city of Artemovsk itself continues – fighting on the eastern and southern sides of the settlement.

Zelensky’s former communications spinmeister, Oleisky Arestovich, also is singing a markedly different tune these days with respect to the Russian Special Military Operation:

After leaving the post of adviser to the Office of the President, Arestovich launched into all serious frankness – he said that the Russian special operation was conceived as a bloodless mission and should have passed without casualties.

“They tried to wage a smart war… Such an elegant, beautiful, lightning-fast special operation, where polite people, without causing any damage to either a kitten or a child, eliminated the few who resisted. And they didn’t even eliminate them, but offered to surrender, switch sides, understand and etc. They didn’t want to kill anyone. Just sign the renunciation.”

Arestovich is not the only one in hot water. Ukraine’s Defense Minister Reznikov faces an exploding scandal for his extraordinary skill as a retail grocer and generator salesman:

Ukraine’s Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov — one of the most prominent faces of the war against Russia — is now under fire on the home front as investigations into government corruption rocked the country over the weekend. . . .

Both of the inquiries are related to war profiteering, and triggered an immediate pledge of action from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday night. The case involving the defense ministry involved purchases of military rations at inflated prices — a topic that has snowballed into top news in Kyiv. Almost simultaneously, the deputy infrastructure minister was fired in a case linked to an overpriced public purchase of electrical generators. The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine said it was investigating both matters.