(CNN) The head of private military company Wagner says his men will begin withdrawing from Bakhmut this week because dwindling ammunition supplies and mounting casualties mean there’s “nothing left to grind the meat with.”
Speaking on his official Telegram channel on Saturday, Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin blamed the Russian military command for the ammunition shortage and said its forces would begin withdrawing from May 10.
“We took 95% of Bachmut. For that last 5%, the ‘Red Army’ [the Russian Armed Forces] do not matter,” said Prigozhin.
“We don’t have the necessary ammunition and nobody has talked to us about going back to full capacity,” Prigozhin said.
“It is better to save our army than to win a battle.”
The announcement of Prigozhin — sometimes dubbed “Putin’s chef” because his catering companies provided services to the Kremlin — follows the release last week of explosive video footage of him challenging Russia’s military leadership and blaming defense chiefs for “tens of thousands.” made ” the Wagner victim.
The founder of the private Wagner mercenary group Yevgeny Prigozhin leaves a cemetery before the funeral of a Russian military blogger who was killed April 8 in a bomb attack at a St Petersburg cafe in Moscow, Russia.
Prigozhin, whose Wagnerian mercenary group has assumed a growing role in the Ukraine conflict as Russian forces faltered, has been widely visible on the front lines in recent months – where he has claimed territorial gains, particularly in the fighting around the US rampage east Ukrainian city of Bakhmut.
But along with Prigozhin’s reputation, his clashes with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and the head of the Russian armed forces, General Valery Gerasimov, have fueled speculation about possible elite power struggles in Moscow as Russia’s military campaign stalls.
In February, Prigozhin accused the two men of “treason” over their alleged failure to support and supply the Wagner Group in Ukraine.
His latest challenge to Russian defense officials comes as Bakhmut remains heavily contested.
In his Saturday telegram message, Prigozhin said Wagner’s role in Bakhmut was to crush Ukrainian forces while allowing Russian forces to regroup.
“On October 8, 2022, together with Army General Sergei Surovikin, it was decided to launch Operation Bakhmut Meat Grinder – an attack on the village of Bakhmut in order to provoke (Ukrainian President) Vladimir Zelenskyy to intervene as many armed forces as possible in order to to hold Bakhmut. We ground in Bakhmut (the Ukrainian Armed Forces), hence the name – ‘Bakhmut Meat Grinder’,” said Prigozhin.
“The purpose of Operation Meat Grinder Bakhmut was to allow Russian army units to capture advantageous defensive lines, mobilize personnel, re-equip, train and increase their combat potential,” he added.
“Regarding the Bakhmut meat grinder, there will no longer be a meat grinder because there is nothing left to grind the meat with,” Prigozhin said.
Invitation of the Chechen leader
Prigozhin’s message came as notorious Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov called on Wagner fighters to unite with his Akhmat Battalion at Bakhmut.
“The Wagner (company) has very good, courageous, necessary, necessary people who are necessary for us because they know the area,” Kadyrov said in a video message on Saturday.
“If you stay with us, I promise you that we will give you more and create better conditions than today. We will try to make everything first class for you,” said Kadyrov, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“You (Wagner fighters) know our commanders. You can contact them – any group, the number doesn’t matter,” the Chechen leader noted.
Kadyrov also posted an image of his letter to Putin “to issue combat orders to remove Akhmat units from other directions to hand over Wagner positions in Bakhmut to them.”
Additional reporting by Brad Lendon