- The mercenary leader says the officer was locked out on Monday morning
- Unusual video shows Prigozhin increasing the possibility of defeat
- Wagner boss has been asking for more ammunition for weeks
March 6 (Portal) – Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin said his representative was denied access to the Russian military command headquarters in Ukraine on Monday, further widening his rift with the defense apparatus.
Prigozhin said the incident came the day after he urgently requested supplies of ammunition from the commander of what Russia is calling its “special military operation” (SMO).
“On March 5, I wrote a letter to the commander of the SMO grouping about the urgent need to allocate ammunition. On March 6, at 8 a.m., my representative at headquarters had his passport revoked and was denied access,” Prigozhin said via his press service on Telegram.
Since mid-January, Russia’s campaign in Ukraine has been personally commanded by the Chief of the General Staff, Army General Valery Gerasimov.
Prigozhin’s private militia Wagner has fought much of the heaviest fighting around the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, but for weeks he has bitterly complained that the military leadership is belittling its contribution.
In a video released over the weekend, he repeated earlier complaints that his men were being deprived of ammunition.
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“If Wagner withdraws from Bakhmut now, the whole front will collapse,” Prigozhin said in the video, which was apparently filmed in a bunker. “The situation will not be comfortable for all military formations protecting Russian interests.”
Portal could not independently verify when and where the video, which was not published on Prigozhin’s usual Telegram channel, was taken. A prominent critic of the mercenary boss said, without providing any evidence, that it was two weeks old.
Prigozhin on Friday said his units had “virtually surrounded Bakhmut” where fighting has intensified over the past week after months of attrition, with Russian forces attacking from three sides.
In Monday’s statement, he said: “We continue to smash the forces of Ukraine near Bakhmut.”
Writing by Mark Trevelyan, additional reporting by Lidia Kelly; Editing by Kevin Liffey
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