HEAD OF RUSSIA’S WAGNER GROUP SAYS HE HAS BEEN PROMISED MORE AMMUNITION, MAY STAY IN BAKHMUT

Sun 07 May 2023:

The head of the Wagner group has said he has been promised as much ammunition and weaponry as he needs to continue his assault on the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut.

Yevgeny Prigozhin made the comment in a recorded message posted on his Telegram channel on Sunday morning.

It comes just days after he announced plans to withdraw from Bakhmut, a strategically important city in Ukraine’s east that has been the scene of heavy fighting in recent months, saying the group was suffering “useless and unjustified losses”.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of Wagner, is angry that the Russian authorities do not supply ammunition to them while his soldiers are dying in Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/h0gNFSYBkG

— Daily Turkic (@DailyTurkic) May 4, 2023

That announcement followed an expletive-laden video in which Prigozhin complained his forces were not being well supplied and criticised the defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, and the chief of the general staff, Valery Gerasimov, by name.

Standing in a field surrounded by dead bodies, he said: “They came here as volunteers and die for you to fatten yourselves in your mahogany offices.”

“The bottom line is the following: they promise to give us ammunition and weapons, as much as we need to continue further actions. They swear to us that everything that is necessary will be on the flank so the enemy сan’t cut us off. We are told that we can act in Bakhmut as we see fit,” Prigozhin said, according to CNN.

He said they had been assured “that everything necessary will be provided” to fighters around Bakhmut.

The Russian Ministry of Defence is yet to respond to Prigozhin’s latest claim.

This latest development follows his blistering attack on military chiefs over the situation in Bakhmut, the epicentre of Ukraine’s fight against Moscow’s forces.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of Wagner, declared the withdrawal of Wagner mercenaries from Bakhmut due to a shortage of ammunition. He says Wagner will stay in the city until May 9. pic.twitter.com/bs6QGtMfeh

— Daily Turkic (@DailyTurkic) May 5, 2023

He said that his troops would be leaving the city by May 10 because of heavy casualties and inadequate supplies.

He even accused the top military brass of treason, claiming their reluctance to send more ammunition, saying that because of lack of support, their forces were “facing a senseless death”.

Prigozhin’s Wagner Group has been spearheading Russia’s months-long attack on Bakhmut, with some reports even suggesting that their troops had gained control of most parts of the city, a claim fiercely contested by Ukraine.

Though Prigozhin has made similar threats to pull out in the past, Friday’s video statement and the scathing personal criticism of the leaders of Russia’s campaign in Ukraine were unprecedented.

Officials from the West claimed that thousands of Russian and Wagner troops have been killed in the fighting, and the eastern Ukrainian city has become a symbolic prize.

Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov have often been the focus of his anger, amid reports of infighting among different power groups in Vladimir Putin’s entourage.

Panic in Russian-held towns

Meanwhile, mad panic gripped Russian-held cities in Ukraine bordering the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant anticipating Kyiv’s fresh offensive.

The Ukrainian mayor of Melitopol, Ivan Fedorov, said there was a waiting time of five hours as thousands of cars left, reports BBC.

The UN’s nuclear watchdog warned a “severe nuclear accident” could occur.

The director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, said the situation at the Zaporizhzhia plant was “becoming increasingly unpredictable and potentially dangerous”.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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