The mercenary chief is at odds with the army: “We will force them to give us ammunition,” says Yevgeny Prigozhin, who had previously accused Defense Minister Shoigu of treason.
The head of the Russian mercenary group, Wagner, called on his compatriots to support his demands for ammunition and put pressure on the army. “If every Russian – this is not a rally call – (…) just said: ‘Give Wagner ammunition’ (…), that would be very important,” Wagner’s boss, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said in a morning sound recording distributed by its press service on Wednesday.
Chief Wagner’s unprecedented appeal is further evidence of the level of tension between the mercenary force and the Russian General Staff. For days now, Prigozhin has accused the Russian high command of not supplying ammunition to mercenaries fighting for the city of Bakhmut, in eastern Ukraine. In Russia, criticism of the Russian military can be punished with up to 15 years in prison. Several members of the opposition are imprisoned under this law.
Prigozhin in course of attack against Russian army commanders
In his new audio message, Prigozhin asked Russians, from “drivers” to “flight attendants”, to raise the ammunition issue with Wagner. “We are going to force them to give us ammunition,” he said. On Tuesday, Prigozhin accused Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu of “betraying” Wagner by failing to deliver the ammunition demanded by the mercenaries.
Russia’s Ministry of Defense responded to those allegations on Tuesday with a statement detailing the ammunition authorities said was supplied to “voluntary assault squads” – a name the army appears to be using for Wagner. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov initially declined to comment on the conflict.
(APA/AFP)