After the announced withdrawal of the Wagner mercenaries, Prigoshin announced that he would remain in Bakhmut after all.Credit: IMAGO/ZUMA Wire
Politics
Moscow and Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Russian mercenary army group Wagner, have reached an agreement. Prigozhin’s announcement to withdraw his mercenaries from the embattled city of Bakhmut has been withdrawn. Reason for the threat: Lack of ammunition and support supplies.
The ARD-daily News” Prigozhin. And further:
“On May 10, 2023, we will have to hand over our positions at Bakhmut to MoD units and Wagner units will have to withdraw to lick our wounds.”
The Wagner group is the driving Russian force in and around Bakhmut and has already taken parts of the city. It looks like the brutal mercenaries will stay in the region after all – and possibly commit further brutal war crimes against the local population and stationed soldiers.
Putin’s bloodhound Kadyrov wanted to step in
Meanwhile, Chechen ruler Ramzan Kadyrov, also known as Putin’s bloodhound, had announced that he would send his own group of mercenaries to Bakhmut should the Wagners withdraw.
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The planned retreat of the Wagner group is now followed by the retreat from the retreat. Prigozhin says he has been promised the necessary weapons and ammunition. ARD quotes an audio message from the Wagner boss. In it he explains:
“They promised to give us all the ammunition and equipment we need to continue the operations.”
He was also assured that everything necessary would be made available. And not only that. He was also assured that the Russian army would give flank support to the Wagner mercenaries. The units were no longer in danger of being surrounded. Moscow has so far left open a confirmation that Russia has really promised all this.
Prigozhin has been harshly critical of Russia in the past
In recent months, Prigozhin has repeatedly blamed the Russian Defense Ministry under Sergei Shoigu for the heavy losses suffered by his mercenary force. Because of the lack of artillery ammunition, the losses during the storming of the city were five times as high as necessary, he says.
He claimed that 50,000 Ukrainians died in the Battle of Bakhmut, but at the same time admitted “tens of thousands” of dead and wounded on his own side.
The Battle of Bakhmut has become the bloodiest battlefield in Russia’s 14-month war of aggression against Ukraine over the past six months. With high losses, the Wagner fighters deployed there have recently pushed the Ukrainians further and further back – but cannot conquer Bachmut completely.
A withdrawal from the now completely destroyed city in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk would not be a particularly significant defeat for Moscow from a military-strategic point of view – but from a symbolic point of view it would be all the more important.
(With material from the dpa)
