Yevgeniy Prigozhin Sergei Ilnitsky/Pool/AFP via Getty Images
As Russia marks the first anniversary of its invasion of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin is making speeches highlighting Russian unity in its war effort — and Wagner’s paramilitary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin has underscored the apparent divisions.
On Monday, Prigozhin — Wagner’s financier and public face formerly best known as “Putin’s cook” — indirectly blamed Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Ukraine’s wartime commander General Valery Gerasimov for blocking his requests for ammunition. He turned on the attack on Tuesday, and specifically accused Shoigu and Gerasimov of “distributing orders right and left that the Wagner PMC should not receive ammunition,” which “can today be equated with high treason when Wagner PMC fights for Bakhmut and loses hundreds.” of their fighters every day.”
Russia’s Defense Ministry dismissed Prigozhin’s accusation of lack of ammunition, saying such accusations would only help Russia’s enemies by damaging national unity. Prigozhin called this reaction “an attempt to hide their crimes.”
Prigozhin on Wednesday posted a photo of a room full of corpses he said were dead Wagner fighters — CNN called it “one of the weirdest PR campaigns in living memory” — and claimed “all these guys are yesterday because of this.” died of so-called starvation of ammunition.” He added that “there should have been five times fewer deaths” and blamed Gerasimov and Shoigu by name.
On Thursday he claimed victory and said the requested ammunition was on its way.
“In the opaque world of the Russian military, it’s impossible to know whether his troops got the ammunition or whether the Kremlin lost patience and told him to play nice,” reports the New York Times. However, the Washington Post adds, Prigozhin’s public outburst “revealed what the Russian president refused to admit: his war is easing, and key players around the Kremlin are now at each other’s throats.”
Prigozhin stepped out of the shadows last summer by publicly recruiting Wagner shock troops from Russian prisons and offering them pardons from Putin if they served six-month contracts in Ukraine. The convicts accounted for about 40,000 of the 50,000 mercenaries Wagner sent to Ukraine, according to US estimates, and the majority of the 30,000 Wagner soldiers who were killed or wounded while they led near-suicidal attacks to ambush entrenched Ukrainian forces weaknesses.
The story goes on
Prior to his outburst over ammunition supplies, Prigozhin complained that the Defense Ministry had removed Wagner from Russia’s advances in Soledar and Bakhmut. Putin did not mention Wagner in his speeches this week.
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