The boss of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner, Evguéni Prigojine, attacked the Russian general staff in videos of rare virulence.
The boss of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner threatened on Friday May 5 to withdraw his troops next week from the city of Bakhmout, the epicenter of the fighting in eastern Ukraine, accusing the Russian general staff of depriving him of ammunition. For its part, Russia announced the partial evacuation of 18 occupied localities, located near the front line, while a fire broke out in Ilsky, Russia, near the Ukrainian border. Franceinfo takes stock of what to remember from the day on the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.
Wagner Group threatens to withdraw from Bakhmout
Letting his anger explode in several videos of rare virulence, businessman Yevgeny Prigojine threatened the Russian general staff to withdraw Wagner’s troops from Bakhmout, in eastern Ukraine, next week . The head of the paramilitary group also blamed the high command for the “tens of thousands” Russians killed and injured in Ukraine. A withdrawal of Wagner from Bakhmout, where this organization is in the front line, would leave the Russian army in a delicate position.
Wagner’s chief has for months accused the Russian general staff of not providing enough ammunition to his men to deprive them of a victory in Bakhmout which would overshadow the regular army, which suffered setbacks last year. If these statements take the form of an announcement, it could in fact be an ultimatum: the boss of Wagner is accustomed to hot statements and he sometimes backtracks.
Asked by the press about these tensions, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov replied that he had “seen the declarations” of the head of Wagner but refused to comment on them. For its part, the Russian Ministry of Defense acted as if nothing had happened in its daily bulletin, laconically evoking the “offensives” of the men of this paramilitary group in Bakhmout, “supported” by “airborne units” of the regular army.
Ukraine believes Russia wants to conquer Bakhmu by Tuesday
As tensions come to light, on the ground, fighting continues. According to Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Ganna Maliar, Russia hopes to conquer Bakhmut by Tuesday, the day it celebrates victory over Nazi Germany with great fanfare in a grand celebration of patriotic exaltation. Ganna Maliar believes that Moscow’s new tactic is to “remove men from Wagner” for the “replace with parachute assault units” of the Army.
Russia partially evacuates 18 occupied localities, before the Ukrainian counter-offensive
Be that as it may, these disagreements are resurfacing at a time when kyiv claims to be preparing to make an imminent attempt to reconquer the occupied territories. In front of “the increase (in the number) of bombardments” Ukrainians, the authorities installed by Russia in the areas it occupies in the southern region of Zaporizhya have announced the evacuation of 70,000 people from 18 localities. Analysts cite Zaporijjia as a possible theater for the major offensive announced for weeks by kyiv.
Suspected drone attack in Moscow: Russia accuses the United States again
Thousands of kilometers from the battlefield, during a trip to India, the head of Russian diplomacy once again accused the United States of being linked to an alleged attack by Ukrainian drones against the Kremlin that Moscow claims to have foiled on Wednesday. “The ability of our Ukrainian and Western friends to lie is very well known”indeed said Sergei Lavrov, sweeping away the denials of kyiv and Washington.
The dome of the Senate Palace in the Kremlin, damaged on Wednesday by the fall of a drone during the alleged attack, has also been restored, the Russian presidency said in the evening, quoted by the press agencies. This incident, unprecedented since the beginning of the Russian offensive, is part of a worrying context for Moscow of the multiplication of attacks of this kind. On Friday, a new fire broke out in an oil refinery targeted by a drone in a region near Ukraine, according to the relief quoted by the TASS news agency.
Two famous Russian artists imprisoned for “apology” of terrorism
A Russian court on Friday placed in pre-trial detention Evguénia Berkovitch and Svetlana Petriïtchouk, two artists accused of advocating terrorism for one of their plays, in the midst of a crackdown on dissident voices in Russia since the military offensive in Ukraine. Last year, Evgenia Berkovitch, mother of two minor children, published verses against the offensive in Ukraine which had been “widespread”underlines the text accompanying a petition launched by the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta for their release.