In an intelligence update on Wednesday, the UK's Ministry of Defence said the notorious Wagner Group paramilitary is likely protecting its officers letting them stay far from combat and lead via drone.
Instead, the ministry said, the private militia relies on "expendable" troops, often recruited straight from prisons, to march into harm's way.
Wagner is one of the many feuding factions carrying out Russia's invasion of Ukraine alongside its main armed forces.
It is led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin who got close to the halls of power in the Kremlin by providing catering for its events.
The UK update said his Wagner militia was taking a "major role in attritional combat" in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region.
Its tactics there involve commanders remaining under cover to "give orders over radios, informed by video feeds" from drones.
It described the orders given as simplistic and inflexible: a map with a route drawn on it which recruits have to follow. Sometimes they get help from artillery and armored vehicles, the update said, and sometimes they don't.
"Wagner operatives who deviate from their assault routes without authorization are likely being threatened with summary execution," the update said.
UK officials presented this as a way to "make use of a large number of poorly trained convicts it has recruited."
"These brutal tactics aim to conserve Wagner's rare assets of experienced commanders and armored vehicles, at the expense of the more readily available convict recruits, which the organization assesses as expendable," it added.
Prigozhin, was seen traveling to prisons and penal colonies in September to recruit soldiers after Russian troops suffered major losses in Ukraine.
He told the prisoners that even serious crimes would be forgiven in exchange for fighting in Ukraine — but that anyone who deserted would be killed.
The group, which has been repeatedly accused of war crimes and human rights abuses, has long been active in Syria and multiple African countries where Russia is seeking to project its power.
Since fighting in Ukraine, the group has been forced to lower its standards in order to replenish its ranks.
"Very limited training is made available to new recruits," the British Ministry of Defense said in a July 18 assessment, adding that the trend "will highly likely impact on the future operational effectiveness of the group and will reduce its value as a prop to the regular Russian forces."
