Wagner’s Prigozhin Warns He’s Ready to Withdraw From Bakhmut

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(Bloomberg) -- Wagner forces may withdraw from Ukraine’s eastern city of Bakhmut because of growing casualties and an acute shortage of ammunition, said the mercenary group’s founder Yevgeny Prigozhin.

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“I am writing this letter to Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu with a request to immediately issue ammunition,” Prigozhin said in an 86-minute video interview conducted Friday with Russian military correspondent Semyon Pegov and posted Saturday on the WarGonzo Telegram channel.

If sufficient ammunition isn’t provided right away, Prigozhin said he would “consider it necessary” to complain to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The comments, which were largely ignored by Russian state media, are the latest sign of tension between the mercenary operation and Russia’s defense ministry, which Wagner relies on for the provision of ammunition and other materiel.

In an uneasy alliance, Wagner forces and defense ministry troops have attempted since August to overrun the city in eastern Ukraine, and in the process have laid most of the area to waste while incurring heavy casualties.

Read more: Russia Strikes Across Ukraine as Kyiv Says New Offensive Nears

Tensions between Wagner troops and Russia’s regular defense forces have flared repeatedly, and Prigozhin’s fighters have struggled to advance more than a few dozen kilometers in and around Bakhmut.

Russia’s defense ministry said Sunday it’s appointed Colonel General Alexei Kuzmenkov, recently deputy chief of the National Guard, to be responsible for supply and logistics. He replaces Mikhail Mizintsev, who served in the post since September. No reason was given for the switch.

As recently as Saturday, a Ukrainian armed forces spokesman said Kyiv’s troops remain in control of the “road of life,” a crucial supply artery for food, medicine and weapons running to Bakhmut from Chasiv Yar, about 16 kilometers to the west.

Top Russian commanders, meanwhile, have sown doubts with Putin about the mercenaries’ supposed military prowess, people close to the Kremlin told Bloomberg News in March. Now, Prigozhin is preparing to scale back the private army’s operations in Ukraine and shift its focus back to Africa, the people said. Wagner troops are believed to be active in several African countries, including Sudan.

Read more: Putin’s Mercenary Prigozhin Shifts Focus After Ukraine Setbacks

Wagner units will stay in Bakhmut until the last bullet, “but these bullets are left not for weeks, but for days,” Prigozhin said in the interview.

“We are approaching the point that private military company Wagner is running out, and private military company Wagner, in some short time, will cease to exist,” Prigozhin said. “We’ll go into history - but it’s all right, such things happen.”

The Wagner leader’s entreaty was likely to have been an attempt to gain leverage “as Putin is once again reshuffling the Russian military leadership in a way that may favor Prigozhin,” analysts at the US-based Institute for the Study of War said in a daily assessment.

In the same video, Prigozhin said Ukraine’s army was ready for a widely-expected counteroffensive against Russia that could start within weeks as the terrain is drying and the number of troops increasing.

Bakhmut remains an epicenter of fighting in Ukraine, the Ukrainian General Staff said Sunday in a statement on Facebook. Russian forces made unsuccessful attempts to capture small towns south-west of Bakhmut, according to the statement.

--With assistance from Aliaksandr Kudrytski.

(Updates with Defense ministry staff changes in 7th paragraph)

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