The head of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner threatened on Friday to withdraw its fighters from May 10 from the city of Bakhmout, the epicenter of the fighting in eastern Ukraine, because of a lack of ammunition which he blames on the army against a backdrop of rivalry.
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“We were going to take the city of Bakhmout before May 9. When they saw this, the military bureaucrats stopped the deliveries” of ammunition, accuses the businessman Evguéni Prigojine in a video published by his press service.
“Therefore, from May 10, 2023, we will withdraw from Bakhmout,” he adds, saying he refuses that “(his) guys, without ammunition, suffer unnecessary and unjustified losses”.
“We are waiting for an order to leave Bakhmout. We will be in Bakhmout until May 9 (…) Afterwards, we will go to the camps in the back”, he adds.
This ultimatum comes after weeks of growing tensions between the Wagner group and the military.
Mr. Prigojine regularly accuses the general staff of not providing enough ammunition to his Wagner group, on the front line in the battle of Bakhmout, to deprive it of a victory that would overshadow the regular army.
In another particularly virulent video published overnight from Thursday to Friday, Mr. Prigojine specifically accuses Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Russian Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov of being responsible for Wagner’s losses.
Strolling among dozens of bodies presented as those of Wagner members killed in action, he launches: “They died so that you could fatten up in your offices!”
“Shoigu! Gerasimov! Where are my fucking shells?!” shouts Mr. Prigojine, his face contorted with rage and unleashing a shower of insults.
- Listen to Loïc Tassé’s column discussing the threat of the Wagner group on Benoit Dutrizac’s show via QUB-radio :
Wagner has suffered heavy losses in recent months trying to take the city of Bakhmout in eastern Ukraine. The paramilitary group has conquered a large part of the city, but is unable to take the last Ukrainian positions.
If the Kremlin denies any tension within the Russian forces, the latest statements by Mr. Prigojine prove the opposite.
Mr Prigozhin accuses the Russian army command of not providing him with the ammunition he needs to prolong the battle of Bakhmout in order to weaken Wagner and prevent him from winning a victory which would contrast with the humiliating reverses suffered these past last months by the regular forces.