Russia’s Wagner boss threatens Bakhmut pullout

Associated Press

Kyiv: The owner of Russia’s Wagner military contractor threatened Friday to pull his troops out of the protracted battle for the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut next week, accusing Russia’s military command of starving his forces of ammunition and causing them heavy losses. Yevgeny Prigozhin, a wealthy entrepreneur with longtime links to Russian President Vladimir Putin, claimed that Wagner had planned to capture Bakhmut by May 9.

That day is a major Russian holiday marking the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II. But, Prigozhin said, his force hasn’t received enough artillery ammunition supplies from the Russian military since Monday. Known for his bluster, Prigozhin has previously made unverifiable claims and made threats he hasn’t carried out.

Hours before releasing the statement, Prigozhin’s spokespeople published a video of him angrily demanding ammunition from Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and General Staff Chief Valery Gerasimov. Prigozhin has had a long-running spat with the Russian military leadership, dating back to Wagner’s creation less than 10 years ago.

During the war in Ukraine, he has repeatedly chastised Russia’s top military officials, publicly accusing them of incompetence — behavior that is highly unusual in Russia’s tightly controlled political system, in which only President Vladimir Putin can voice such criticism. One general Prigozhin actively criticized was fired, but other top officials he lashed out at appear to have retained the Kremlin’s trust. In January, Putin put Gen.

Valery Gerasimov, chief of Russia’s General Staff, in direct charge of the Russian forces in Ukraine, a move that some observers also interpreted as an attempt to cut Prigozhin down to size. In the video, Prigozhin stands in front of around 30 uniformed bodies lying on the ground. He says they are the bodies of Wagner fighters who died on Thursday alone.

Prigozhin speaks in a furious tone and uses numerous expletives in the video. “These are someone’s fathers and someone’s sons,” Prigozhin says, pointing at the bodies. “The scum that doesn’t give us ammunition will eat their guts in hell.”