The head of the paramilitary group threatened to withdraw his fighters from this Ukrainian city, the epicenter of the fighting, due to a lack of ammunition.
The leader of the Wagner paramilitary group on Saturday asked the Russian army for permission to hand over its positions in the Ukrainian town of Bakhmout to the troops of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov to protest a shortage of ammunition.
“I ask you to issue a battle order on the transfer of the positions of the Wagner group to the units of the Akhmat battalion in the village of Bakhmout and its surroundings by midnight on May 10,” Yevgeny Prigozhin said in a letter published by his press service to Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.
No shipment of ammunition
The Wagner boss specified this request “due to a long lack of ammunition” and accused the workforce of having only provided him with 32 percent of the ammunition requested since last October.
The day before, Yevgeny Prigoyine had threatened to withdraw his troops from the town of Bakhmout, the epicenter of fighting in eastern Ukraine, next week and accused the Russian general staff of depriving him of ammunition.
Chechen fighters “ready”
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov then said on Telegram this Friday evening that his fighters were ready to occupy the Russian positions in the city if the Wagner Group effectively withdrew its units.
“Our fighters are ready to advance and occupy the city. It would take a few hours,” Ramzan Kadyrov said, noting that his troops had already fought alongside Wagner in the Russian-captured Ukrainian cities of Popasna, Severodonetsk and Lisykhansk .
In a separate message this Saturday morning, Yevgeny Prigoyine thanked Ramzan Kadyrov for his proposal and assured that Bakhmout, which has been resisting Russian attacks since last summer, is “definitely” taken by Chechen troops.
Wagner’s boss has been accusing the Russian general staff for months of not providing his men with enough ammunition to deny them a victory at Bakhmout that would eclipse the regular army.