Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of the Private Military Company (PMC) Wagner, said on Tuesday that his units had received no more than 10% of the requested ammunition. However, the “Wagnerians” will stay in Bakhmut (Artemovsk (Bakhmut)) for a few more days. He had previously announced that the Wagner would leave town on May 10. A video with a new statement from Prigozhin was released by the press service of his company Concorde.
Prigozhin said the ammunition was in warehouses. “We were promised the seven they would give us. On the eighth day, at two o’clock in the morning, a combat order was received, in which it was written – to give everything. Today is the ninth. On the 8th there was a meeting where they gave 10% of what was requested. We have simply been brazenly deceived,” he claims.
He claims that “this morning the Chief of the General Staff personally corrected all the figures and reduced them by 10 times”. “It’s very bad. If this continues, we won’t be able to fight,” Prigogine said.
“But we will not leave Artemovsk (Bakhmut), we will insist for a few more days, we will fight. And then we will find a solution,” Prigozhin said.
He said that on May 8 he received a combat order stating that leaving the positions at Bakhmut would be recognized as treason. According to Prigozhin, the same document indicates that the Wagner PMC group must be supplied with everything necessary, and all decisions will be made by the ex-commander of the joint group of Russian troops in Ukraine, Sergei Surovikin.
Prigozhin called Surovikin’s appointment a positive moment. He claims that Surovikin from the very beginning “fought every day” to ensure that the “Wagnerites” of Bakhmut received enough weapons, and if he had been heard, then today the fighters would have already been well beyond Ugledar, Slavyansk and Kramatorsk. However, according to Prigogine, “instead of fighting, we have intrigues all the time”.
“Today Ukraine x… cheats the Belgorod region, successfully cheats (..) Today they tear the flanks in the direction of Artyomovsk, regroup in Zaporizhzhia and a counteroffensive will begin in the near future,” warned Prigozhin.
He also congratulated everyone on Victory Day in the Great Patriotic War, while stressing that “this is the victory of our grandfathers, we did not deserve this one-millimeter victory.”
“Congratulations on the day of the victory of our grandfathers. Why do we celebrate this is a big question. Just remember them and that’s it,” Prigogine said.
On May 5, Prigozhin said that on May 10, PMC Wagner would leave their combat positions in Bakhmut, since the Ministry of Defense had not transferred the necessary amount of ammunition to the fighters. On the same day, the leader of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, announced that the Ahmad battalion was ready to replace the units of the Wagner PMC. On May 7, Prigozhin said he had received an order that Wagner PMC fighters would receive “as much as necessary” ammunition and weapons to continue fighting.
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