Shortage of supplies forces Wagner Group to leave Bakhmut
Due to a shortage of ammunition and high casualty rates among his troops, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner Group, threatened to withdraw his units from the Ukrainian town of Bakhmut in the eastern Donetsk region by next Wednesday. Prigozhin issued a statement on the Telegram messaging app in which he addressed the chief of staff, the defence minister, the supreme commander-in-chief and the Russian people. According to Prigozhin, the mercenaries have only 10 per cent of the ammunition they need.
Prigozhin declared: "I state on behalf of Wagner fighters, on behalf of the Wagner command, that we are obliged to transfer positions in the Bajmut settlement to the Ministry of Defence units on 10 May 2023". The paramilitary group, he promised, will be ready to "return to defend the Fatherland after licking its wounds".
Evgeniy Prigozhin declares in a video that he will be ordering the withdrawal of Wagner mercenaries from Bakhmut due to an acute shortage of ammunition allegedly ordered by the Russian General Staff. He says Wagner will stay in the city until 9 May to avoid shame on this day. He… pic.twitter.com/zFooKfYXRP
— Dmitri (@wartranslated) May 5, 2023
Addressing Chief of General Staff Valeri Gerasimov, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, Commander-in-Chief Vladimir Putin and the Russian people, he emphasised that Wagner's group had fallen "into disgrace with envious quasi-military bureaucrats" and that he was withdrawing "Wagner's PMC units because, without ammunition, they are doomed to a meaningless death". He concluded: "The Russian people can rely on us".
Russian incursions into Ukrainian territory, including Bakhmut, have been significantly facilitated by Prigozhin's forces. In an interview on Sunday, he threatened to pull his mercenaries out of the besieged eastern town after earlier complaining of inadequate support from the Kremlin.
Graphic Warning#Prigozhin has been displaying and ranting over Wagner's daily losses taken in #Bakhmut for the past several days.
— TOGA (@KrzysztofJano15) May 5, 2023
Today's latest video was his most aggressive yet, and demonstrates the tensions between #Russian MoD senior leadership and Wagner PMC… pic.twitter.com/sroB5wYj6M
Wagner's boss continued: "I request the chief of the General Staff of the Army to approve the transfer of Wagner's current positions in the town of Bakhmut to Russian Army units and to communicate the date when we will be relieved in these positions". He stressed that, at the moment, only 20.5 square kilometres of the 45 square kilometres of the town are actually under his control. He argued that, by withholding ammunition, you were actually denying Russia the opportunity to win instead of us.
The announcement by Wagner's boss of his departure from the troubled Ukrainian town of Bakhmut was met with little comment from Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. In a conference call with reporters, Peskov said: "Of course, I saw it in the media, but I cannot comment because it is about the special military operation." The leader of the Wagner mercenary group denounces the Russian military leadership and declares his withdrawal from Bajmut, saying: "They are dying to get fat in their offices".
Both Prigozhin's request for more ammunition and his tactics are not new. He has repeatedly criticised the Kremlin for providing insufficient assistance during the gruelling battle for the eastern city. Prior to this, Prigozhin had already complained that a lack of ammunition was causing his units to lose around 100 men each day in Bakhmut. He posted a picture of a pile of corpses on Telegram along with a similar request for ammunition in February. Shortly after that statement was made public, he made another, claiming that Wagner's troops were about to receive a shipment of ammunition.
To Prigozhin's delight, the support does not seem to have persisted. He had already threatened to leave the city with his troops last weekend if Moscow did not give him more ammunition. The Russian capital has refused to comment on the Wagner Group's exit intentions and the criticism voiced by the mercenary group's leader.
The departure of Wagner Group mercenaries from the area could lead to a break in the Russian front in Bakhmut at a time when Ukraine claims that a counteroffensive is nearing its end. With Russian forces and Wagner Group mercenaries essentially taking control of the entire city, the largest city in Donetsk province has been embroiled in fighting for several months. According to comments by military analysts to Infobae, the Ukrainian defence has been losing ground and is now relocating to a small area west of the city.
