the death of Prigozhin – we don't confirm that." Several months later, on 11 December, Ukraine's governor of Luhansk, Serhiy Haidai, claimed that Wagner had suffered "significant losses" after a Luhansk headquarters in a Zhdanov guest house (in Kadiivka) had been destroyed. During the fighting at Bakhmut in late September, senior Wagner commander Aleksey Nagin was killed. Nagin previously fought with Wagner in Syria and Libya, and before that took part in the Second Chechen War and the Russo-Georgian War. He was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Russian Federation. On 22 December, Pentagon's John Kirby claimed that around 1,000 Wagner fighters were killed in fighting at Bakhmut during the previous weeks, including some 900 recruited convicts. According to Kirby, the Wagner Group had also received a shipment of weapons from North Korea. In mid-January 2023, the Wagner Group captured the salt mine town of Soledar after heavy fighting. During the battle, Wagner reportedly surrounded Ukrainian troops in the center of the town. Hundreds of both Russian and Ukrainian troops were killed in the battle for Soledar. Several days later, Wagner captured Klishchiivka, south of Bakhmut, after which they continued advancing west of the settlement. Early in the battle for Klischiivka, a Wagner Sukhoi Su-24 bomber was reportedly shot down, with both pilots killed. Another Su-24 was shot down near Bakhmut in mid-February 2023, with the fate of the crew unknown. Although according to other reports the aircraft was only damaged and managed to return to its base. Wagner line On 19 October 2022, Evgeny Prigojin, the leader of the paramilitary group Wagner, announced that he had begun the construction of a defense line. The aim is to prevent Ukrainian troops from advancing towards the Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine, which was annexed by Russia in September. Treatment of prisoners and deserters In September 2022, the group's Task Force Rusich, known to be active in combat in Ukraine, advocated for war crimes in its Telegram channel, calling for "removing body parts" and "destruction of prisoners on the spot". The Guardian reported that the Rusich message's "key points also include explicit instructions to murder captives after interrogation and encourages forcing the families of murdered captives to pay Rusich for the coordinates of their loved ones' bodies." According to the United Nations-supported Tech Against Terrorism director Adam Hadley, "the actions of Rusich in the conflict demonstrate the concerning prominence of