The confrontation between the Russian Ministry of Defense and the head of the Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, seems to be about to explode. Visibly enraged by the mercenaries’ lack of ammunition, he published two videos yesterday Friday full of insults and resentment in which he accuses the Minister of Defense, Serguei Xoigu, and the Chief of Staff, Valeri Guerassimov.
The oligarch, close to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, spread the outbursts at a delicate moment for Russia: after the alleged drone attack against the Kremlin, for which Moscow accuses Kyiv, before the traditional military parade on Independence Day Victory, on May 9, and waiting for the announced Ukrainian counter-offensive.
In the first recording, surrounded by corpses and between insults and rude language, he directly accuses Shoigu and Gerassimov of the death of his men for not sending them supplies. In the second, he says that on May 10 the mercenaries will leave the city of Bakhmut, which his men have been trying to capture since the summer, in the hands of regular Russian troops.
“These are boys from the private military company Wagner, who died today (May 4). The blood is still freshâ€, he says at the beginning of the message, published on the Telegram channel by the press service of his company Concord. “Record everything,” he says to the camera operator, who shows dozens of bloodied corpses lying on the ground.
“And now, listen to me, dogs,” says an enraged Prigojin, facing the camera directly. “These boys were someone’s parents and someone’s children. And this scum that doesn’t give us ammunition, dogs, will eat their scraps in hell. We are 70% short of ammunition…! Playboy! Gerassimov! Where’s the ammo? Look at them, sons of bitches!â€
Prigozhin, dubbed the “Kremlin chef” for his contacts with Putin and contracts for his catering company, has for months accused the Russian General Staff of not delivering enough supplies to Wagner to deprive him of a victory that would eclipse the army. But never as violently as this time.
He also did so in the fall, when he joined those of Russian nationalist bloggers criticizing the planned operations in Ukraine.
In January he went so far as to accuse the Ministry of Defense of trying to “steal” victory from Wagner after taking the small town of Soledar, near Bakhmut.
“You think that if you have the ammunition depots you have the right to dispose of their lives. By basic calculation, if you gave us the right ammunition, there would be five times less deaths. They came here as volunteers and are dying because you are eating in your mahogany offices. Let you know that”, says Prigojin in his harsh allegation.
On Friday, Prigozhin republished a second video on Telegram, accompanied by a 3-page, 20-point statement in which he claimed that his men would leave Bakhmut for “lack of ammunition” after Victory Day.
“I declare on behalf of the fighters of Wagner, on behalf of the command of Wagner, that on May 10, 2023 we are obliged to transfer positions in the settlement of Bakhmut to units of the Ministry of Defense and withdraw the remnants of Wagner to logistic camps for lick our wounds”, says the controversial businessman, shouting in front of a group of militiamen, standing and all with their faces covered.
“I withdraw Wagner’s units from Bakhmut because, for lack of ammunition, they are doomed to die senselessly.” He then asks the Russian defense chiefs to replace the militiamen with regular troops.
Wagner has led the Russian effort to capture Bakhmut, in Ukraine’s Donetsk province, since the summer in the longest and bloodiest battle of the war in Ukraine.
