Russia’s Wagner mercenary force boss threatens Bakhmut withdrawal

Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin mentioned casualties in Bakhmut can be ‘5 occasions fewer if we had extra ammunition’.

The top of Russia’s Wagner mercenary drive has threatened to withdraw his troops from the important thing battle for Bakhmut in jap Ukraine as casualty charges mount, whereas Ukraine army authorities mentioned Russian forces have been unable to chop their provide routes to the entrance line metropolis.

Losses in Bakhmut have been 5 occasions larger than mandatory due to the shortage of artillery ammunition, Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin mentioned in an interview with Russian army blogger Semyon Pegov printed on Saturday.

“Each day we have now stacks of hundreds of our bodies that we put in coffins and ship dwelling,” Prigozhin mentioned.

Prigozhin mentioned he had written to Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu asking for provides of ammunition as quickly as attainable.

“If the ammunition deficit isn’t replenished, we’re pressured — so as to not run like cowardly rats afterwards — to both withdraw or die,” he mentioned.

The withdrawal of some fighters from Bakhmut can be seemingly, however he warned that this may imply that the Russian entrance line would collapse elsewhere.

In an audio assertion printed on the Telegram messaging app of his press service on Saturday night, the Wagner boss mentioned he misplaced 94 fighters because of an absence of ammunition provides.

“It might have had been 5 occasions fewer if we had extra ammunition,” mentioned Prigozhin, who has beforehand accused Russia’s common armed forces of not giving his males the ammunition they want. He has additionally accused Russia’s high brass of betrayal.

A Ukrainian army spokesperson mentioned on Saturday that Russian forces have been unable to chop off its provide strains to the Ukrainian defenders of Bakhmut.

Russian forces have been attempting for 10 months to punch their manner into the shattered stays of what was as soon as a metropolis of 70,000, and the battle of attrition for Bakhmut has change into often known as the “meat grinder” as a result of excessive casualty charges.

“For a number of weeks, the Russians have been speaking about seizing the ‘street of life’, in addition to about fixed fireplace management over it,” Serhiy Cherevatyi, a spokesperson for Ukrainian troops within the east, mentioned in an interview with native information web site Dzerkalo Tyzhnia.

“Sure, it’s actually troublesome there … [but] the defence forces haven’t allowed the Russians to ‘reduce off’ our logistics,” he mentioned.

The “street of life” is a crucial street between the ruined Bakhmut and the close by city of Chasiv Yar to the west — a distance of simply greater than 17km (10 miles).

The availability of provisions, weapons and ammunition is secured, Cherevatyi mentioned, and Ukrainian forces have been sustaining their positions alongside the street, and engineers had already laid new roads to Bakhmut.

“All this permits us to proceed holding Bakhmut,” he mentioned.

If Bakhmut fell, Chasiv Yar would in all probability be subsequent to return underneath Russian assault, based on army analysts, although town is on larger floor and Ukrainian forces are believed to have constructed defensive fortifications close by.

Ukraine has pledged to defend Bakhmut, a metropolis Russia sees as a stepping stone to assault different Ukrainian areas.