Wagner chief again threatens Bakhmut pullout over supplies
Bloomberg News
In an expletive-laden video filmed in front of a field of corpses, Wagner mercenary group founder Yevgeny Prigozhin accused Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and the head of the army Valery Gerasimov of failing to supply his troops in Ukraine with enough ammunition.
He said he will pull his forces out of the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, where they’ve been fighting since late last year, on May 10 if he doesn’t get more munitions. That threat came in a separate written appeal to President Vladimir Putin published Friday, echoing a warning he issued late last month.
“These are all Wagner guys who were killed today, the blood is still fresh,” Prigozhin said in the grisly video posted Friday on his Telegram channel, in which he claimed his troops lacked 70% of the ammunition they needed.
“Due to the shortage of munitions, our losses are growing geometrically on a daily basis,” he said in the written appeal.
Wagner has already advanced most of the way into Bakhmut, Progozhin said, claiming that only a small amount remains to be seized.
Prigozhin has accused the Defense Ministry in Moscow of failing to supply enough ammunition to Wagner troops who’ve been fighting intense battles for months with Ukrainian forces in an operation he said was called the “Bakhmut Meatgrinder.”
It’s not clear whether the friction is genuine or a possible attempt to lull Ukraine’s military into believing that Russian forces are less well-equipped than in fact they are.
In his written appeal to Putin, Prigozhin recounted his version of the conflict, blaming “bureaucrats” for starving his units to prevent Wagner from meeting its goal of retaking all of Bakhmut by May 9, when Russia celebrates the Soviet victory in World War II.
The Kremlin is aware of the appeal, but spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on it, according to RIA Novosti.
“Wagner has long had a significant artillery advantage in Bakhmut and received preferential support,” Rob Lee, a senior fellow at the U.S.-based Foreign Policy Research Institute, said Friday on Twitter.
The tensions are likely a reflection of the Defense Ministry rationing ammunition before an anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive because it “has to defend the whole front but Prigozhin only cares about taking Bakhmut,” he said.
The Defense Ministry has rejected Prigozhin’s criticism and Shoigu said Wednesday that “sufficient ammunition has already been delivered to the Armed Forces this year to inflict effective fire damage on the enemy.”