(Moscow) The boss of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner, Yevgeny Prigojine, whose men are on the front line in eastern Ukraine, has again complained of a lack of ammunition, attributing the delays in delivery to a possible “betrayal”.
“Orders have been given for delivery on February 23. But so far most of the ammunition has not been sent,” Prigojine said in a social media post on Sunday evening.
He mentioned two possible reasons for the delay: “Ordinary bureaucracy or betrayal”.
Wagner’s fighters are on the front line in the battle for Bakhmout, a city in eastern Ukraine that Russia has sought to conquer for several months and where forces from Moscow and Kyiv have suffered heavy losses.
Last month, Mr. Prigojine had multiplied the virulent criticism of the Russian Defense Minister, Sergei Shoigu, and the Chief of Staff, Valery Guerassimov, accusing them of committing “treason” by refusing to provide ammunition to Wagner.
A few days later, Mr. Prigojine announced that ammunition would finally be delivered.
In a sign that tensions persist, in a video posted over the weekend, Mr. Prigojine appeared to warn the Russian army, saying that “if Wagner withdraws now from Bakhmout, the whole front will be will collapse”.
“It will collapse to the borders of Russia, maybe even further. Generally speaking, the situation will not be the most pleasant,” he continued.
Despite the strong tensions between Wagner and the army, Russian forces have advanced in recent days around Bakhmout, threatening to encircle this city which the Ukrainians continue to defend fiercely.
PHOTO LIBKOS, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Ukrainian soldiers prepare for an attack near Bakhmout.
On Sunday, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a group of American experts, estimated that Ukrainian forces were “likely carrying out a tactical retreat of limited magnitude” in Bakhmout.
While some analysts question the Ukrainians’ interest in clinging to the now devastated city, the ISW said the defense of Bakhmout remains “strategically sensible” as it “continues to drain the Russian manpower and equipment.
“It is unlikely that the Ukrainian forces will withdraw suddenly from Bakhmut, and it is possible that they will continue a gradual retreat while fighting, in order to exhaust the Russian forces with urban fighting” where the defense forces are “traditionally advantaged”, according to the ISW.
Ukraine says it shot down 13 explosive drones
Ukraine announced on Monday that it had shot down 13 Iranian-made explosive drones out of 15 launched by Russia overnight, the delivery of Western air defense systems helping Kyiv to deal more effectively with this threat for several weeks.
“Russian invaders attacked Ukraine with Shahed-131/136 from the north (Russia’s Bryansk region),” the Ukrainian Air Force said.
In total, “15 drone launches were recorded and 13 Shahed were destroyed”, according to the same source.
The Ukrainian authorities have not reported any human or material damage caused by the two drones which were not shot down.
According to the military administration of Kyiv, drones were notably launched on the Ukrainian capital but all were shot down and there were no casualties or damage.
Since October and after several setbacks on the ground, Moscow has begun to frequently target so-called “essential” Ukrainian infrastructure, particularly energy, depriving millions of inhabitants without electricity during the winter.
The frequency of these attacks has, however, slowed down in recent weeks as Ukraine has strengthened its air defense capabilities and the West has already supplied, or will deliver, modern systems to Kyiv (NASAMS, IRIS-T, Aspide 2000, Hawk, Patriot…).
Last week, an attack involving 14 drones – 11 of which were shot down – however killed two people, rescuers, in Khmelnytsky.
Reconstruction works in Mariupol
Russia’s Defense Minister visited Ukraine’s ‘special military operation’ area to inspect reconstruction work in Mariupol, a port city devastated after a destructive siege, in Donbass, the army said on Monday Russian.
Minister Sergei Shoigu recently conducted an inspection at a “command post” on the frontline in eastern Ukraine, as the battle for the hotly contested city of Bakhmout rages on.
“As part of a trip to the area of the special military operation”, Mr. Shoigu conducted inspections of already reconstructed infrastructure sites as well as new construction sites in Mariupol, in the Donetsk People’s Republic ( DNR), announced the Russian army in a press release which does not specify the exact date of this visit.
Among other things, he visited a medical center, another emergency center and a new residential area comprising 12 buildings, the statement continued, adding that he was also presented with a report on the construction of a major aqueduct supposed to connect the DNR to Russia’s Rostov region.
The Russian army is responsible for the main reconstructions in the annexed Ukrainian territories.
At the end of December, Sergei Shoigu had made two such visits to the area of the “special operation” in Ukraine.
The strategic port of Mariupol had been conquered last May by Russian forces, after more than two months of siege which devastated a large part of the city: many apartment buildings, schools and businesses were destroyed.
Before the Russian military offensive, the city, built on the shores of the Sea of Azov, had more than 400,000 inhabitants. But it has largely become depopulated, with many residents fleeing the fighting.
The Russian government presented a plan last summer to rebuild Mariupol in three years, a goal that seems ambitious given the scale of the destruction.
In December, the team of imprisoned Russian opponent and slayer of corruption, Alexei Navalny, published an investigation accusing officials of the Russian Ministry of Defense of embezzlement in the work of reconstruction of Mariupol.