The leader of the paramilitary group Wagner asked the Russian defense minister on Saturday to hand over Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov’s troops to their positions in the Ukrainian town of Bakhmout, which he will soon leave in protest at a shortage of ammunition.
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“I ask you to issue a battle order for the surrender of the positions of the Wagner group to the units of the Akhmat battalion in the village of Bakhmout and its surroundings before midnight on May 10,” Yevgeny Prigoyine said in a letter from his press service to the Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.
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, Mr Prigoyine had threatened to withdraw his troops from the town of Bachmout next week, the epicenter of fighting in eastern Ukraine, and accused the Russian general staff of depriving him of ammunition.
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov then said on Telegram on Friday evening that his fighters were ready to occupy the Russian positions in the city if the Wagner group actually withdrew their units.
“Our fighters are ready to advance and occupy the city. It would take a few hours,” Ramzan Kadyrov assured, noting that his troops had already fought alongside Wagner in the Ukrainian cities of Popasna, Severodonetsk and Lisychansk that were captured by Russia.
On Saturday morning, in a separate message, Yevgeny Prigojine thanked Mr Kadyrov for his proposal and assured that Bakhmout, which has been resisting Russian attacks since last summer, is “undoubtedly” 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.