March 6, 2023 at 09:24 GMT
Updated 59 minutes ago
picture description,
Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner group, speaks in Bakhmut in a video released March 3
Russia’s private army chief Wagner has said it is not getting the ammunition it needs from Moscow as it tries to seize control of Bakhmut.
Russian troops – from Wagner and regular Russian forces – are trying to capture the eastern city from Ukraine.
But Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin complained about a lack of ammunition, it could be “ordinary bureaucracy or treason”.
Relations between Wagner and Moscow seem increasingly strained.
In a post on Sunday, Mr Prigozhin said the documents were signed on February 22 and ammunition is expected to be sent to Bakhmut the next day.
But most weren’t sent, he said, before suggesting it might be intentional.
Separately, in a video uploaded on Saturday – but apparently filmed in February – Mr Prigozhin said his men feared they would be “set up” as scapegoats should Russia lose its war in Ukraine.
“If we step down, we will go down in history as the people who took the most important step in losing the war,” he said.
“And that’s the problem with mussel hunger [ammunition shortage]. This is not my opinion, but that of ordinary fighters…
“What if she [the Russian authorities] want to line us up and say that we are villains – and therefore they do not give us ammunition, weapons and do not let us replenish our staff, including [recruiting] prisoners?”
In Saturday’s video, Mr Prigozhin said that without his troops, Russia’s front line would collapse.
“If Wagner PMC [private military company] withdraw from Bakhmut now, then the whole front – which PMC Wagner is cementing today – would collapse.”
He suggested that Wagner fighters would “destroy the entire Ukrainian army…” and deprive it of the opportunity to concentrate on other parts of the front.
While the private army was “moving forward,” the Russian military would be forced to “catch up to save face,” he indicated.
Last month, Mr. Prigozhin complained that Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov were holding back ammunition supplies to his troops.
Ukrainian troops are likely conducting a “limited combat retreat” in eastern Bakhmut, the Institute for War Studies (ISW) said on Monday.
The ISW said the Russian military relied on Wagner in months-long efforts to capture Bakhmut and has since “reinforced Wagner forces at Bakhmut with Russian airborne elements and mobilized personnel.”
On Saturday, Bakhmut’s deputy mayor told the BBC that there had been street fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces.
However, Oleksandr Marchenko said Russian troops have not yet gained control.
“They have no aim to save the city…their only aim is to kill people and genocide the Ukrainian people,” Mr Marchenko told the Today programme.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian military officials said leaders of the Russian 155th Brigade fighting near the town of Vuhledar, south of Bakhmut, resisted orders to attack after suffering heavy casualties.
The Russian Defense Ministry said its forces had attacked a command center of Ukraine’s Azov regiment in the south-eastern Zaporizhia region.
Separately, Moscow’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has visited the occupied city of Mariupol during a trip to eastern Ukraine – a year after his troops besieged the city.
The Defense Ministry said it is inspecting work to “restore infrastructure in Donbass” – words likely to grate in Ukraine given Russia’s responsibility for the destruction.