The founder of the “Wagner” group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, renewed his accusation that the Russian authorities, especially Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov, are behind the significant shortage in arms supplies to the group, which amounts to 70%.
Prigozhin’s press department published a video clip on “Telegram”, in which he appears greatly dissatisfied with the situation and speaks with a group of the corpses of his fighters behind him, threatening to withdraw his fighters from Bakhmut on the 10th of this month due to the lack of ammunition. He said: “These young Wagner fighters have been killed today.. Their blood is still hot.. Listen to me carefully: These fighters are sons of families or fathers.. We have a shortage of ammunition by 70%.. Shoigu.. Gerasimov.. Where are my supplies?”
He added, “We were on our way to take control of the city of Bakhmut before May 9, and when the military bureaucrats saw this, they stopped (ammunition) supplies. Therefore, as of May 10, 2023, we will withdraw from Bakhmut.”
He pointed out that his forces will remain in the sites in Bakhmut until the ninth of May, and then will move to the rear camps, to heal the wounds. He asked the Chief of the General Staff to issue military orders to the Wagner Private Military Company to transfer the sites in the town of Bakhmut to the units of the Ministry of Defense. He stressed that the lack of ammunition greatly increases our losses every day.
Prigozhin had expressed his belief that a promised counter-offensive by Ukrainian forces had already begun, adding that his forces were observing increased activity along the front. In an audio message published by his press service on social media, he said: The active phase of the counterattack will begin in the coming days.
He believed that the advance of the Ukrainian army had already begun. We are witnessing the largest possible activity, whether in the vicinity or within the front lines. “So I think it’s all over,” he added. I believe that all of this will enter an active phase in the very near future. It could be within days.”
For its part, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced the outcome of its military operations during the past 24 hours on the various fighting axes. “On the Donetsk axis, the attack units took control of two new neighborhoods, and continued advancing in the western part of the city of Bakhmut,” Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said during a press briefing.
He stressed that the strikes of the operational and tactical air force, army aviation, and artillery fire of the Southern Forces Group,
The 60th, 93rd, and 54th Infantry Brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were targeted in the Krasnoye region, the southwestern suburbs of Artyomovsk and Grigorievka.
